


Crime and Commitment

by OneBoyz



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Detective, M/M, Murder Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25655800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneBoyz/pseuds/OneBoyz
Summary: Lee Seoho likes to catch criminals. What he likes more is to flex his beautiful brain. When he gets asked to investigate the attempted murder of Son Dongju, he realizes that he may be on the brink of uncovering a crime that is a lot bigger than it first seemed. Besides, it’s always complicated when feelings are involved.
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo/Lee Seoho, Lee Seoho/Yeo Hwanwoong, Son Dongju | Xion/Yeo Hwanwoong
Comments: 69
Kudos: 122





	1. One

“Argh, I hate being around the police,” Geonhak commented, his arms folded across his chest in what appeared to be a defensive position. He was glancing around furtively, frowning at the uniformed policeman dotted all around the hospital compound, some speaking into their walkie-talkies, others still, but vigilant.  


“You're not a criminal anymore, remember?” Seoho said in an attempt to reassure his boyfriend, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

“Anymore? I was never the criminal!” Geonhak was appalled by the slip of tongue.

“No one knows that better than me,” Seoho reassured.

Seoho and Geonhak met through a case. When he was a medical student, Geonhak had been framed for the death of one of their classmates. They were all having a night out, celebrating the end of exams. It was rowdy, as these parties tend to be. One of their classmates ended up falling off the roof of a building and passing away and because Geonhak had been there with him, he had been arrested. He himself was very drunk and did not remember much from the night; but at least he knew he hadn’t killed his classmate. But no one would listen to him, prosecution had filed charges against him. That was when he had met the young private detective who had been hired by his classmate’s parents to find evidence against him. They did not want their son’s killer to walk free due to lack of evidence so they hired private help. But Seoho had done the complete opposite – he had pieced together the events from the night and discovered that Geonhak had, in fact, been framed. 

Of course Geonhak was grateful to the detective who saved his life but he hadn’t realized that he wasn’t the only one reluctant to end their interaction. When Seoho had confessed that he liked him, Geonhak had internally swooned.

Sometimes, Seoho could be insufferable. He was a genius with an incredible IQ and thought processes that Geonhak could never quite follow. Devilishly charming, Seoho used his powers of persuasion to his advantage. he was not like other private investigators, looking into cheating husbands or corporate espionage – he only took on cases if he thought it’d challenge him mentally. Countless times Geonhak had seen him turn down cases because they were too mundane or easy, even if they paid well. He was different, but that was one of the things Geonhak found so attractive about him.

“Do you think they’re looking at me funny?” Geonhak asked as they passed an uniformed police officer. He had never been able to shake off the unease he felt around police – he had lost all his faith on them when they’d arrested him and refused to listen to his side of the story. Granted, someone had framed him but whatever happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’?

“Relax, you’re fine.” Seoho wasn’t exactly looking at him. His eyes were scouting the area, his ears alert, hoping to pick up any stray conversation about the ‘incident’. 

All Hwanwoong had said before asking him to meet at Seoul General Hospital was that one of his close friends had been attacked – an attack that was an attempt at murder. Hwanwoong had sounded devastated on the phone, so Seoho hadn’t pressed for further details. Seoho had known Yeo Hwanwoong for a very long time. Yeo Hwanwoong had a crush on Seoho for a very long time, but he had never really confessed and Seoho had always pretended to not notice. Truth be told, there was very little Seoho did not notice. His brain was always churning and understanding intricate human relationships and feelings was something he did best – it helped him solve crimes. No matter what people said, all crimes had an emotional undertone to them and pinpointing that was what made him a successful private detective at only 24. 

“Besides, you knew this is what it's going to be like, why did you have to come along?” 

Geonhak’s frown deepened, and it was directed at Seoho this time. “If that's what I have to do to spend time with you, I will.” His determination was impressive at times.

They both led busy lives – of course there were times when Seoho did not have a case to work on, but he used the time to do research or learn new skills. He hated being idle. 

“Suit yourself,” he shrugged, glancing at his watch impatiently; Hwanwoong was still nowhere to be seen. Just as he was about to call him, the man in question appeared at the gate, speaking to an officer hurriedly before coming towards the pair of them.

“Thank you so much for coming,” he said, almost breathed. “And...errr…you’re here too?” he turned his attention towards the grimacing Geonhak who snorted, “Any problems?”

The two didn’t have the best of relationships. Geonhak knew Hwanwoong liked Seoho; the younger could be very transparent at times. Even though they barely knew each other, Geonhak was jealous of Hwanwoong, and Seoho suspected that the feeling was mutual.

“None at all.” Hwanwoong’s voice was uncharacteristically cool. “Right, this way.” He led them through the entrance, where they had to undergo a search by two police officers. Geonhak was obviously not pleased. Seoho had left his trusty gun at home, so it was only a matter of pulling out some spare change from his pocket.

“Isn’t this a bit too excessive?” Geonhak asked, after having been frisked thoroughly by the policemen, as they walked down wide corridors with white walls, stained with yellow spots here and there. Even though Seoul General Hospital had a reputation for cleanliness and its higher end clientele, the paint job on the walls was showing age.

“Not for a famous government official’s son, no,” Seoho muttered, causing Hwanwoong to start.

“How did you know-”

“I saw a government car in the parking lot, placard is pretty standard for high-ranking officials – the official wasn’t attacked obviously, he would not be the right age to be your friend, so surely his son.”

He watched with satisfaction as Hwanwoong’s eyes widened with admiration. He knew he was smart but he loved when his deductions caused people to stare at him in wonder. It was one of the small luxuries he allowed himself.

“Yes, Son Seojoon is his father.”

Son Seojoon was the President's secretary, one of the most powerful people in the Blue House. That explained the extra security measures around the hospital, as well the police’s trepidation.

“And the victim is…?”

“Son Dongju, a friend of mine. We – our fathers know each other – I’ve known him for a long time.”

“Son Dongju, did you say?” Geonhak suddenly asked, looking interested. 

“Yes,“ Hwanwoong assured. “Why?”

“Nothing.”

From the corner of his eyes, Seoho thought that his boyfriend looked a bit more anxious than before.

Passing a set of wards, they reached the end of the corridor where a set of double doors was being guarded by four policemen. 

“He is in a private room,” Hwanwoong explained, as they submitted themselves to another police search. “They had to operate on him, he’s been out of the operation theatre for a couple of hours now. After he regained consciousness, the surgeons said that he was safe, but they are keeping him under observation.”

Knocking on the door gently, Hwanwoong pushed through, leading them into a spacious room that resembled a hotel room more than a hospital. On one side of the room, a man was lying on the patient’s bed, hooked to several medical devices here and there. He looked pale but there was no doubt, even after everything he had been through, that he possessed a handsome face with dyed blonde hair. 

“Dongju-ah,” Hwanwoong called softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. The man on the bed opened his eyes with languid exasperation. “This is – this is Seoho – a-a friend of mine. The private detective I told you about.”

Dongju only blinked. He was looking straight at Hwanwoong, as if the other two didn’t register in his field of vision. As quietly as possible, Geonhak approached the bed, looking at the monitors Dongju was hooked to, out of professional interest, no doubt. Seoho took the time to take in the surroundings. There were no flowers or cards, not yet, too early for that. There was no one else in the room, which he found a little surprising, given that the secretary and his wife were probably in the hospital building somewhere. 

“Where did Dongmyeong go?” Hwanwoong asked but Dongju only shook his head. He was wearing a pale hospital gown, a white bandage peeking under his top. “Seoho hyung is a great detective, he can help find the person who-who did this,” Hwanwoong cooed. It was almost as if he was talking to a child, which Seoho found interesting. Given that Hwanwoong was so much shorter than him and younger too, Seoho had thought of Hwanwoong as a child. It was strange to see him baby someone else.

Dongju’s face was impassive; it didn’t seem like he was registering what his friend was telling him.

“Mr. Son, I know it might seem rude of me…but I need to know everything you remember from the attack. It must be still fresh in your mind now, but the longer we wait, the higher is the risk that we will lose precious details.”

“I already talked to the police.” Dongju’s voice was strained; he continued to look at Hwanwoong only.

“Yes, but it will be really helpful if you repeat it to me. You see, the police and I have different ways of deducing-”

“I didn’t see him or hear him.” His tone was abrupt, distant. He winced as he tried to shift on the bed. “I was just… sitting there and then I felt…I felt this sharp cold thing piercing my chest from the back and …and this cold metallic taste in my mouth and…” He scrunched his eyes shut, reeling from the recent horrific memory. His face was awry with pain. 

“Okay, but can you remember anything else? Any particular smell, any sound?”

Dongju was shaking his head, eyes still shut. 

“Give him a break,” Geonhak whispered from his side. Suddenly, Dongju opened his eyes as if struck by lightning, moving his head to determine which direction the voice had come from. When his eyes found Geonhak, he started, his face suddenly vivid with emotions.

“Geonhak hyung?” he croaked, his eyes lighting up with recognition.

“Hey,” Geonhak replied softly, affectionately even. “Didn’t think the next time I met you would be under these circumstances.”

"No...me neither."


	2. 2.

While Hwanwoong watched the exchange perplexedly, Seoho started to ponder how the two could be acquainted – judging by the emotive responses on both sides, they weren’t mere acquaintances. Geonhak had recognised Dongju by his name, and Dongju had recognised Geonhak by his voice; obviously they must have known each other for a while. While working on Geonhak’s case, Seoho had met all his close friends from medical school – Dongju was not one of them. Surely, they had parted ways before Geonhak had started medical school; certainly estranged since Dongju had not come to see Geonhak during his trial, he probably didn’t even know about it. That placed the period of their relationship some time during their middle and/or high school years. But what was the actual extent of their relationship? 

“Dongju-ah, you know him?”

“We went to the same high school,” Geonhak answered quickly. Dongju was still staring at him with wide eyes.

“Oh.”

“Anyway,” Seoho ploughed on, slightly disturbed by the intensity with which Dongju was staring at his boyfriend. “Mr. Son…Dongju, if I may? Back to what you were saying – you were sitting and…”

“I thought you wanted to go to medical school.” It was obvious who Dongju was talking to. It was as if Seoho’s words hadn't even registered.

“I did.” Geonhak smiled kindly at his friend, although at this point, Seoho was wondering if they had really been just friends. “I’m doing my internship and at Mongdan Hospital.”

“Then why are you…” Dongju’s eyes briefly wandered over to Seoho, looking at him properly for the first time.

“Seoho is…ahem, he’s my boyfriend, I help him out from time to time.”

“You do?” It was Seoho’s turn to be amazed. It was true that Geonhak sometimes took a look at the cases he was working on or accompanied him to some places, but he wouldn’t exactly call it helping. It was more for Geonhak’s benefit than his anyway.

Geonhak glared at him, but Dongju’s attention had been caught by something else.

“Your boyfriend?”

When Geonhak nodded, he whispered, “Your new boyfriend, you mean.”

That statement, coupled with the intense staring, could only mean that Dongju and Geonhak had dated back in high school. For whatever reason, they had split up, and from the looks of it, it hadn't been as amicable on Dongju’s side as on Geonhak’s.

Geonhak was about to reply, but Seoho didn’t have time for their reunion. He walked closer to the bed.

“Look Dongju, we’re trying to find the man who attacked you and-”

“How long have you been dating him?” Dongju was still talking to Geonhak; it didn’t look like he was interested in anything else, including capturing his own assailant.

“That is not important right now.”

“Dongju, please answer the questions, it’s for your own good,” Geonhak urged, no doubt trying to help Seoho. 

At that moment, one of the monitors Dongju was connected to started beeping. From the spikes on the screen and the number 126 flashing red, Seoho could guess that his heart rate was picking up.

“For my own good? Like how we had to break up for my own good? Well Geonhak hyung, it hasn’t done me any good, if you care to know.” Dongju’s voice quaked as his heart rate accelerated. 

Alarmed, Geonhak pressed the buzzer, calling for the nurse as Hwanwoong tried to calm the younger man down. The man on the bed was visibly shaking. Two nurses rushed in and shooed them all away from the bed. A doctor entered a minute later and told them to leave the room. Seeing as they weren’t getting any information out of him anyway, Seoho heeded the doctor and he and Geonhak filed out of the room, Hwanwoong staying behind to check on his friend.

They were standing outside the door, away from the policemen, as they waited for Hwanwoong. Seoho's mind was trying to put together all the bits of information he had on the case. The white bandage on Dongju’s chest confirmed that he had indeed been stabbed in the chest. The attacker had driven the knife in from the back, so he had had the element of surprise on his side. No struggle of course. Dongju mentioned he had been sitting – had he not heard the approaching footstep of his attacker? And if he had not seen the attacker, how did he know it was a man. Statistically, of course, it was likely to be a man but was Dongju just guessing that or he had a reason to say so?

“Aren’t you going to ask me anything?” Geonhak’s deep voice penetrated through his thoughts.

“Did you see the assailant?”

Geonhak huffed, folding his arms over his chest.

“I meant about me and Dongju.”

“What’s there to ask? You two dated in high school, you broke up with him before leaving for college, probably because you thought he would be a distraction while you were studying medicine, told him a cheesy lie that it was for his own good, and that was the last you saw of him.”

Judging by the look on Geonhak’s face, he was right.

“I swear, sometimes you’re just annoying. I hate the fact that you’re so smart,” he growled.

“If you have anything to add to that, feel free.”

Sighing exasperatedly, Geonhak said, “It wasn’t a lie. Our relationship was a distraction to him as well – he was flunking his classes. It was for his own good.”

“But yours too, right? Yours more than his, I believe. He didn't even seem to care about college all that much."

“... You’re unbelievable!” 

Geonhak stalked off, affronted. Seoho knew that he would be sulking somewhere in the building. At the moment he was probably internally debating whether to just drive off and go home, leaving him here, but that meant Seoho would have to get a lift from Hwanwoong, which he wouldn’t like at all. In the end, he would decide to stay, Seoho knew, but he would give him the silent treatment. Geonhak always stayed, always.

When Hwanwoong finally joined him later, he looked worried.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“How’s Dongju?” Seoho asked.

“Under control. The doctor thinks he was stressing out too much, so he won’t be able to have visitors for some time.”

“Well, can you tell me anything about what happened?” Seoho glanced towards the policemen, who were whispering among themselves. “They all seem disproportionately worried. I mean, of course an attempted murder on a high-profile man’s family is worrying, but still…”

Hwanwoong gulped.

“Haven't you heard about the serial murders that have been making rounds in the papers recently?”

Comprehension dawned on Seoho. Of course, he had heard about the notorious serial murders. Three bodies had been found so far, all stabbed in the heart with chilling precision. The way the knife had entered the body was identical in each case. If Dongju had been stabbed in the chest, it could very well have been the same killer. That was not good news for the police, who were no closer to catching the culprit than flying. They had very little clues to work with, and no apparent connection between the victims.

“So they think that Dongju was the victim of the serial stabber? The Myeongdong Stabber?” 

“The wound was identical, apparently.”

“But not fatal,” Seoho observed. “In every other case, it had been fatal. The victims had bled out in mere minutes. Found dead at the scene.”

“He is incredibly lucky. I found him minutes after-”

“You found him?” Seoho was astonished that Hwanwoong hadn’t mentioned that before. “Tell me everything!”

“Well... we were supposed to meet at the Planet bar in Myeongdong last night. I was running late, finishing up a few things…he went out for fresh air, he rang me and asked me to meet him at the park nearby.” Hwanwoong paused, looking down at the floor. It was as if he were looking for words to express his thoughts. “He was unconscious when I found him, and there was so much blood everywhere... It was-it was horrible. I thought…” Unable to continue, he hid his face in his hands. 

“Right, Hwanwoong,” he placed his hands on either side of the younger’s head, bending a little to match him at his eye level, “I need you to tell me everything that you have heard or seen or smelled even. Everything.”

Hwanwoong bit his lips, trying to concentrate.

“Well…the park was…empty, I think. I-I had to look around a bit because I wasn’t exactly sure where Dongju was. I didn’t see anyone or hear anything. I was walking near the pond when…I heard a groan and…I saw Dongju and my heart just…”

Deserted park with a pond nearby – good location for the crime and great way to get rid of the body. But there was no way the murderer knew that Dongju would be there that night – unless the stabber was not targeting Dongju specifically.

“Was Dongju bleeding significantly?”

Hwanwoong nodded emphatically. “Loads, like loads. I put pressure on the wound and called 119, they arrived about ten minutes later but it was the most difficult ten minutes-”

“Wait so he bled for more than ten minutes?” Seoho frowned. Something did not seem right. The Myeongdong Stabber – he was a pro. He struck the heart with precision, the victims had bled out in a couple of minutes. All the victims were young and healthy. Why had Dongju survived? Why had the stabber made a mistake?

“Well I was … putting pressure-”

“But that’s minimal,” Seoho interrupted. “Where was the cut, exactly?”

Hwanwoong looked taken aback. “At the back, on the left side of his chest…”

“Interesting. Anyway, I need to look at the exact site – we need to go now before the site is disturbed.”

“I think the police are still there,” Hwanwoong said. “Not sure they’ll let us-”

“I’m sure we can convince them to let us have a look.”

As it turned out, the police weren’t allowing any civilians at the crime scene. Even when Hwanwoong explained that he had hired Seoho with Dongju’s parents’ permission and the latter had produced his card, they had refused to let them in.

“This has now become a classified crime,” the Inspector at site told Hwanwoong sternly. “Please refrain from sharing any information with any civilians.” He had shooed them off with a final warning.

However, while all of this was going on, Seoho had wasted no time. Although he was not able to go near the roped off park bench where the crime had been committed, he was able to take in the setting. The park bench was farthest from the entrance and closest to the pond so least likely to be occupied. There were big oak trees growing nearby, providing adequate shade and cover for anyone up to something heinous. It would have been easy to hide behind the trees before the attack and escape with their cover. It made sense. What didn’t make sense was that Dongju had chosen this very bench to sit at, when the park was presumably empty and he wouldn’t have had to walk all the way here from the entrance. 

“What does Dongju do?” They were back in Hwanwoong’s car; the younger had offered to drop him off home. Earlier, Seoho had forgotten to tell Geonhak that he was going to the crime scene with Hwanwoong so when the younger had called him up asking where he was, he wasn’t pleased with the answer. He would have that to deal with later on.

“He doesn’t really need to do anything. He’s dad is the President’s secretary and his mom is the heir of a rich conglomerate. He has more money that he could ever spend in a lifetime.”

“So do you, but you still work.”

Hwanwoong shrugged. “I work for my father, not like it was hard to get the job.” As they stopped at a red light, the younger looked at him curiously. “Do you think it was the stabber?”

Taking a deep breath, Seoho said, “Too early to tell, especially since your friend won’t give me any details.” He was drumming his fingers against the door, an old habit. “Who’s Dongmyeong?”

“Oh,” Hwanwoong scratched his head lightly, “that’s Dongju’s brother, twin brother.”

“And does this twin brother also have all the money in the world?”

The lights turned green and Hwanwoong sped along with the cars on the crowded road. It took him a while to finally answer the question.

“Dongmyeong was disowned by his dad about a couple of years ago. He wanted to-I mean he is in a band but his father didn’t like it. When he said he wouldn’t leave the band, his father disowned him.” Hwanwoong paused while Seoho’s mind whirred. This family was getting more and more interesting. “There was no love lost between Dongju and Dongmyeong, they’re like two peas in a pod.”

“And yet only Dongju qualified for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” Seoho whistled. “How did Dongmyeong take that?”

“It’s not like that,” Hwanwoong said quickly. “He-they would never fight about money. Dongmyeong wanted to follow his dreams and Dongju supports him.”

“But if Dongju is no longer in the picture-”

Hwanwoong braked hard, causing Seoho to hurl forward, almost hitting his head on the dashboard. 

“Sorry,” he apologized, “but Dongmyeong would never think like that, not in his wildest dreams!”

Seoho turned to look at Hwanwoong – he was shaking slightly.

“Do you actually prefer Dongmyeong to Dongju?”

Hwanwoong looked affronted. “I knew them since I was kid, the twins were my first friends-”

“Then are you dating Dongmyeong?” 

“No! I mean…no, I mean…it’s-”

“Complicated,” Seoho grinned. “You need to tell me these things, Hwanwoong, they’re important to the case.”

They had reached Seoho’s flat. Hwanwoong parked the car and then turned to Seoho, grabbing his hand.

“I promise it wasn’t Dongmyeong. It must have been the stabber! Dongju is a sweet boy, he doesn’t have enemies. And Dongmyeong would never, I promise.”

Seoho’s finger lightly brushed against Hwanwoong’s pulse point; his pulse was racing. “Look, I want the truth. And right now, Dongmyeong has a motive. That being said, it doesn’t make him guilty. Let me know when Dongju is ready to talk, okay?” Seoho got out of the car. “Oh and Hwanwoong?” he stuck his head through the window to meet the younger’s eyes. “You might want to tell your boyfriend that you still like me.”

Watching the startled expression on the younger’s face made him chuckle as he walked into his flat. It was really cute, how infatuated Hwanwoong was with him. It also became clear why he had called for Seoho’s help – he was worried that Dongmyeong would become a suspect in this case. So far, he had the motive and the means. His brother would trust him. If he asked to see him at the park in the middle of the night, he would readily agree. Dongju was definitely hiding something – perhaps he suspected his brother as well.

It was frustrating that he didn’t have access to the crime scene – that was crucial. Besides, he needed to speak to Dongju, it didn’t matter that he wouldn’t tell him anything useful, it was what he wouldn’t say or try to hide that was important.

Absent-mindedly he keyed in the password to his flat. Taking his shoes off, he walked across the hallway into the living room and slumped onto the sofa. He needed some time to think, to chart out the characters and the relationships.

“Did Hwanwoong drive you back?” Geonhak had changed into comfortable clothes and by the looks of his wet hair, had taken a shower as well. He liked to shower when he was angry. It didn’t bode well.

“Yes, he did, very kindly.”

“Was it because you had to interview him?” 

“Not really, I haven’t formally interviewed him yet.”

A well-aimed cushion hit him squarely on the face.

“Would it kill you to lie to protect my feelings?” Geonhak’s voice was low, almost like a feral growl. Unlike other people, the younger’s voice grew deeper and deeper the more upset he was until it sounded like echoes in a cave. Seoho had screwed this up.

Sitting up on the sofa, Seoho tried his best to fix him with a soft look. “Geonhak, the love of my life, I don’t know for the life of me why you’re so insecure. Do you know how many boyfriends I’ve had before you? None. Girlfriends? Out of the question. Then why do you need reassurance at every second that I’m loyal to you? Frankly, you’re acting like a child.”

If Seoho had thought that little speech would resolve everything, he was wrong. And there was very little he was usually wrong about. So when Geonhak stared at him with fiery eyes for 2 whole minutes, he thought they were reconciling. But the next moment, the younger stormed off into the bedroom, came out changed within minutes, then walked out of the flat, slamming the door behind him. 

“That went well,” Seoho muttered sarcastically under his breath and slumped back onto the sofa. He would need to deal with Geonhak at some point. Right now, he needed to think about the case.


	3. Three

The living room still felt hot, aftermath of Geonhak’s rage and subsequent walk-out, no doubt. Sighing, Seoho took his phone out and typed in Myeongdong Stabber. News articles and speculative chats flooded the screen. The internet was buzzing – they haven’t had a serial killer in a while, much less a stabber. 

So far, the stabber had 3 victims, 4 if Dongju was counted. He had stuck strictly to the Myeongdong area, that was his hunting ground. Very little information about the victims had been released by the police, however the power of the netizens were not to be belittled. All three victims were in their 20s, they were all rich young men out having a good time before they fell to the murderer. Netizens had dug out pictures of all the victims – at first glance, there was some similarity in the features and body types. They were all of similar height with pale skin, handsome face, and interestingly, dyed hair. Two of them had light brown hair with blonde highlights and the other was greyish blonde. Dongju fit right in the victim profile. So was he really the Myeongdong Stabber’s 4th victim?

I need a look from the inside, Seoho thought. There were two problems here – the Myeongdong Stabber and Dongju’s attempted murder – they could both have the same perpetrator, or not. To understand that, he would need to understand the Myeongdong Stabber.

Luckily, he could think of one person who could help. Going through his contacts he stopped at ‘tallish frog prince’. He chuckled thinking how appropriate the nickname was. 

Tallish frog prince picked up on the third ring.

“Wow, if it isn’t the famous detective, Lee Seoho! Nice job on the shark skin case.”

“It was shark fin,” Seoho gritted his teeth but controlled his voice. He caught a gang exporting shark fin illegally recently – it was million-dollar smuggling business and Seoho had spread a juicy trap that led to the arrest of the head honcho. “How’s my favourite medical examiner doing?”

“Uh-oh,” Keonhee said, “I hear a request for a favour coming. What can I do for you?”

“You know me, Keonhee, trying to make a living.”

“Don’t you dare lie, you’re loaded!”

Seoho chuckled. He did have a rich uncle who had included him in the will. He actually inherited quite a lot of money, enough to live off it without having to work a day in his life. But money was not the reason he did what he did. 

“You know too much about me, we need to change that. As for the favour, what do you know about the Myeongdong Stabber victims?”

“Oh,” Keonhee’s voice sounded hushed all of a sudden. “That’s a big one mate, why are you sticking your hand in that?”

“I may have a potential…4th victim.” Seoho knew he’d have to give Keonhee something, get him interested, for him to co-operate.

“What?” Keonhee shouted. “I mean,” he continued again in a quieter voice, “is this for real? How come we don’t know? I have literally been a part of all the 3 autopsies-”

“Aha! So you are involved!”

The medical examiner groaned. “I’m not supposed to give out anything-”

“Look Keonhee, have I ever gotten you into trouble? I just need a few minutes of your expert opinion. After all, you’re the best ME in town!” The way to tall man’s heart was flattery, Seoho had realized over the months. 

“Well, where’s the 4th body? I swear if you played me with this potential 4th victim-”

“Shhh,” Seoho said, “I’m coming to your office now. I’ll tell you everything.”

Before the younger could say anything else, Seoho hung up. Jumping up to his feet, he got ready to go out, only realizing that he didn’t have a ride. He didn’t drive, he could, he just chose not to. Geonhak normally drove him or he took the subway. It was a pain to get to the Forensic Examination Institute via subway, so he decided to get a taxi. If only Geonhak was home to drive him…That reminded him, he’d have to pay for hurting his boyfriend at some point, he just wasn’t sure how.

The sky was heavy with clouds as his taxi grumbled through the midday traffic. He hoped it wouldn’t rain; he had yet to have a look at the crime scene. He didn’t want all his clues washed away. If it rained…he cracked his fingers, a subconscious habit. Come to think of it, he had met Geonhak on a rainy day, not that Geonhak had realized. 

The first time he had met Geohak, it was at the police lockup, where he had interviewed him, as the suspect in a murder case. The moment he saw him though, he knew he was innocent. It was mere intuition, and normally he didn’t just count on intuition alone, but there was something about Geonhak. He saw the 23-year old man sitting opposite him, a year younger than him, head in his hands, his entire life about to collapse and he saw innocence. That day, Seoho had done something he never did – he had promised Geonhak that he would clear his name. At that point, he had no evidence apart from his intuition to prove he was innocent. That was also the only time he had seen Geonhak cry.

The day the trial had come to an end and Geonhak was acquitted, it was raining again. This time, Geonhak got to enjoy it. Seoho had attended the trial, all the case hearings religiously, which was new for him as well. But he had never felt as invested in a case. Geonhak and his parents along with his younger brother came over to thank him. He had felt embarrassed but he shook their hands and accepted their thanks. While he was leaving, Geonhak had run up to him by himself.  
“I guess this means I won’t see you again?” he had said in his deep voice.

“Unless you get into trouble again,” Seoho had joked. 

Geonhak had scrunched up his nose. “Maybe I can bring over some food, my mom really wants to cook for you.” He hung his head, thoroughly embarrassed.  
“Hey,” Seoho stepped closer to him and put a finger under the younger’s chin, causing him to turn bright red. “How about we get coffee instead?”  
Yes, Seoho had made the first move because he knew Geonhak wouldn’t be able to in a million years. 

It was the first time he had asked someone out, especially a client. But he had no regrets. 

“We’re here.”

The Forensic Examination Institute building was looming in front of them. He paid the taxi driver and got out of the car. At the door, he had to show his ID card and they had to confirm with Keonhee that he was indeed coming to visit him. 

He was shown to Keonhee’s office, which was a large shared space, full of intelligent looking people in white lab coats, poring over files or computer screens.   
“Lee Seoho!” Keonhee exclaimed before grabbing him by the hand and dragging him out of the office. He took him down the corridor and entered an empty autopsy room. It was one of the smaller rooms with one steel trolley in the middle and surrounded by several smaller ones containing scalpels and other equipment necessary for an autopsy. The room was a lot colder than the outside and faintly smelled of formalin. 

“Why are we here?” Seoho asked.

“Because I’m not supposed to talk to you, or anyone, about this case.”

Keonhee folded his arms across his chest. The man was tall, almost 6ft, lanky, and would have looked intimidating right now if Seoho hadn’t known him too well.  
“You know I can keep a secret,” Seoho assured. “Tell me about the victims.”

“Right.” Keonhee took a deep breath and grimaced, looking more like the tallish frog prince again. He produced some pictures from his coat pocket. “Three so far, all well-to-do men, well-dressed, ages between 20-27 years. All had quite high blood alcohol levels so they had been drinking. They were all healthy, no drug use. And if you look closely, they kind of have similar features. He has a type, the stabber.”

Seoho studied the faces of the now deceased men. He confirmed what the netizens had dug up - they all had sharp features, dyed hair, well-groomed. There was nothing there to suggest a connection, except maybe there was a possibility that they ran in the same circles. Of course the fact that they were intoxicated made them easy targets. 

“And the wounds?” he prompted.

Keonhee sighed. “One sharp wound, exactly in the same place on every man, from the back, between the 4th and 5th ribs. The knife entered the body horizontally, nicely avoiding the ribs and was driven straight into the heart. He knows his anatomy.”

“Interesting,” Seoho mused. “And were the wounds perfect from the beginning?”

Shrugging, Keonhee said, “They got better to be honest, the first one, he grazed the underside of the rib but the precision improved.” He looked uncomfortable. “But…you know from the very first kill, he seemed like a professional. Someone with practice. You don’t think…you don’t think the killer is a surgeon or something?”  
“Who knows, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a medical professional. It could be a medical student or just someone who has interest in anatomy. Or even a butcher.”  
The tall man visibly shivered. 

“Well it’s your turn, tell me about this other victim.”

Seoho was staring at the pictures of the victims, his fingers drumming on the surface of the trolley. They looked like they had been picked carefully, so not a random spree.

“This other victim-”

They were interrupted by the entrance of another man in the room. He was almost as tall as Keonhee but more well-built than him. He had dark curly hair and a perfectly sculpted face. He was dressed in black slacks and a blue shirt with a black bomber jacket, but there was an official air about him. The way he held himself and the slight bulge in his jacket told Seoho that he was possibly carrying a gun.

“Sorry to bother you-oh I didn’t realise you were in the middle of a meeting, Dr Lee.” The man smiled pleasantly as Seoho gathered up the pictures with a neat slide of the hand in a fraction of a second, as if they were never there, and put them in his pocket.

“Oh-er, no not a meeting, this is er-actually my friend…”

“Lee Seoho, nice to meet you.” Seoho extended a hand towards the newcomer.

“Kim Youngjo.” They shook hands.

“Detective Kim Youngjo, I believe?”

The look of shock on his face was obvious.

“How did you-”

“A part of your detective badge is sticking out of your jacket pocket, probably from when you had to show it at the entrance and you put it back hastily. That coupled with your stance and the possible firearm you’re carrying…” Seoho trailed off, knowing he had impressed the man enough.

“Lee Seoho? Are you by any chance the famous private investigator?”

“The very same,” Seoho smiled smugly.

“Wow, glad you met my very humble friend, detective,” Keonhee mumbled. 

Kim Youngjo laughed, clearly amused.

“Honour to meet you, really. Are you investigating Son Dongju’s case?”

It was Seoho’s turn to be surprised.

“I’m a detective too, you know,” Youngjo winked at him. “You’re here speaking to the medical examiner of the stabbing victims and this same stabber is the chief suspect in the crime against Son Dongju, who happens to be the son of a powerful man. I would imagine he would want to hire the best private investigator instead of just relying on the police.”

He didn’t correct him that it was actually Dongju’s friend who had hired him. He proposed that they work together and it helped if he thought he was hired by the victim’s family. 

“I would very much like to work with you,” Youngjo replied. “But you need to tell me everything you come up with, we can’t have secrets.”

“Why don’t we start by seeing the crime scene, they didn’t let me see it earlier.”

Detective Youngjo studied him for a few seconds, probably deciding whether to trust him.

“It’s closed off to the civilians.”

“I’m no civilian, I’m…” Seoho returned the wink, “special.”

In the background, Keonhee made gagging noises – he could be so childish sometimes. 

Youngjo’s face lightened. “Well in that case, let me have the honour to drive you there.” He extended an arm towards him and smiled. 

Realizing that the detective was used to getting his way by flirting, Seoho only grinned and ignoring the extended arm, led the way out of the room.

“Thanks Keonhee, you’ve been of great help.”

“Wait, what about the 4th victim?” Keonhee shouted, visibly vexed. 

“I’ll fill you in when I return from the crime scene, Dr Lee,” Youngjo said over his shoulder.

Once outside the building, they got into Youngjo’s car. It was a Mercedes, no doubt paid for by himself. Judging by his clothes and the level of grooming, he had no qualms on spending money for himself.

Youngjo did not look that much older than himself and yet he was a Violent Crimes detective – it pointed to the fact that he was clever himself. Seoho needed the upper-hand here. It was his pathological need to establish dominance when in the company of someone confident and clever.

“So you and Dr Lee, huh?” It was a 50/50, a stone thrown in semi-darkness. He had seen the way Youngjo had looked at Keonhee, and the secret wink that he had sent his way, thinking Seoho hadn’t noticed. As for Keonhee, he had winced when Youngjo had tried to flirt with Seoho. Additionally, the way Youngjo called Dr Lee sounded like a flirty tease.

Sometimes he liked throwing out a vague sentence like that with the confidence of someone who knew things. Most people liked to talk and would tell you anything if they thought that you already knew. 

A playful look crossed Youngjo’s eyes but the corner of his lips turned up fondly.

“Did you work that out or did Keonhee tell you? He is a big blabbermouth.”

“I read people,” Seoho said with a satisfied smirk. Score! “It’s pretty much my only hobby.”

Youngjo brushed his fringe out of his eye. “Violent Crimes detective and medical examiner, I guess it’s cliched, huh?”

“Not cliched if you’re both men.”

At the next signal, Youngjo turned his head to look at him.

“You aren’t Keonhee’s ex or something, are you?”

Seoho put his hands up.

“Not guilty.” 

He had actually met Keonhee during a case, when he had managed to sneak into the crime scene by stealing a medical examiner’s uniform. That ME happened to be Keonhee, who had not reported him after he had explained what he was trying to do. He had solved that case of course, and as a token of gratitude, he let Keonhee take the credit for unearthing an important clue that led to the arrest of the criminal. They had been friends ever since.

Thankfully, it still hadn’t rained by the time they reached the crime scene. Seoho took a closer look at the bench where Dongju was found. The sky was growing darker with clouds. As he studied the surroundings, he realized that it would have been almost impossible for Hwanwoong to find Dongju here, at least not quickly enough in the dark, even with the lamps turned on. Trees crowded around the bench, hiding it neatly from the front side of the park.

“There was a bloody handkerchief here,” Youngjo pointed to the ground, next to the bench. “Belonged to Yeo Hwanwoong. He was the one who found Son Dongju, and applied pressure to the wound.”

Seoho hummed. He was thinking about something else – the blood, or the lack thereof. A knife through the heart would have generated a lot more blood, and Hwanwoong said that the ambulance arrived after 10 minutes, at least. 

“So what do you think?” Youngjo asked, watching him closely.

“Blood,” Seoho said thoughtfully. 

The detective frowned. 

“There’s lots of it.”

“Is there?” Seoho sighed. “Well, what do you think?”

Scratching his head, Youngjo said, “To be very honest, my prime suspect is Yeo Hwanwoong. He found the body, and it would have been so hard to find the body, here of all places! Even if he knew he was in the park, he wouldn’t have known exactly where. What if he stabbed him, then pretended to try and save him while waiting for the ambulance and hoping the ambulance wouldn’t get here in time?” 

Cocking his head to one side, Seoho considered the theory. “The one who finds the body is never the suspect. So you think this was all his plan, to meet Dongju?”  
“Plan gone wrong, obviously, Dongju is still alive.”

“Why do you think is that?”

Youngjo shrugged. “He got too impatient, called the ambulance too quickly.”

“I see.”

“How else could he have found Dongju’s body in time?”

Seoho smiled. “He could have called his cellphone, which any sensible person would do when they arrive at the park. If Dongju had already been stabbed, his phone would be ringing and he could have followed the ringtone.”

“So you don’t think it’s him?” Youngjo looked displeased.

“I haven’t seen anything that tells me otherwise. Besides, what’s the motive?”

The detective waved his hand wildly. “Who needs motive, maybe he’s just a psychopath!”

Seoho shook his head. “Even psychopaths need motive,” he mumbled. “By the way, have you found any connection between the Myeongdong Stabber victims?”  
The other man bit his lips.

“You don’t think this is the same culprit?”

“The wound is the same,” Seoho reasoned.

“It could be a copycat.”

“Must be a good one.”

His phone vibrated in his pocket, cutting through his attention. His first instinct was to ignore it but what if it was Geonhak?

Disappointingly, it was a text message from Hwanwoong.

‘Dongju said he’ll talk to you. Tomorrow, I’ll pick you up at 10?’

It would probably anger his boyfriend if he got a ride with Hwanwoong again but subway would be so packed in the morning and it was so much trouble getting a taxi…

‘Sounds good.’

‘Also…’

‘I don’t want it to be awkward. Because of what you said earlier…’

Sighing, Seoho typed back – ‘It’s nothing’.


	4. Four

Geonhak did not come home all night. He had probably spent the night at his younger brother’s. Seoho had called him a few times but the younger hadn’t picked up. 

In the morning, Seoho sat down to a lonely breakfast, skimming the newspaper. There was no news of Son Dongju being attacked or a potential 4th Myeongdong Stabber victim – seemed like the media was being controlled tightly. It was probably for the best but the only problem was, if the Myeongdong Stabber was unaware that his victim had lived, he would be confused as to why was there was no talk in the papers about his 4th victim. That was unless the stabber knew who Dongju was very well and would expect a level of media control by the government. 

This stabber showed every sign of these crimes being personal. The close contact with the victims – he’d have to get very close to them in order to stab them from behind. But he still wanted a level of anonymity, so he stabbed them from the behind rather than facing them. The similarity between the victims meant that he had to have time to profile them, to get to know them, at least to some extent. The crimes were definitely planned in advance.

He was halfway through his cereal when the door opened and a harrowed looking Geonhak walked in.

“You called me?” Geonhak said, smiling at him through tired eyes. Geonhak’s younger brother lived near a train station, which was probably why the younger hadn’t gotten much sleep and looked exhausted.

“I was worried about you.” 

The younger man came to stand behind Seoho and wrapped his arms around him, kissing him on the cheek.

“I’m sorry about yesterday, I love you.”

Somehow, Geonhak ended up apologizing every time. That wasn’t what Seoho wanted, but it just happened naturally. He felt bad about it, sometimes, but it also made things easier for him. To some extent, he knew why Geonhak was so quick to apologise. Geonhak had a short temper and he himself knew that very well and felt guilty about it. 

“I fixed you breakfast.” Seoho pointed to the other bowl with cereal and milk.

“I love you,” Geonhak repeated, before sitting down next to Seoho and grabbing his hand. “I missed you so much. I felt bad about acting like a jealous child-”

“Hey, it’s ok.” Seoho squeezed his hand. “We all get jealous from time to time.”

“You don’t,” his boyfriend pointed out.

“Well, there was this one time when my friend beat my Rubic’s cube solving time…”

His phone buzzed, alerting him of a text. Hwanwoong was here. This was going to be awkward, just when they were in the process of making up. But duty called.  
Sighing, he said, “That’s my cue, I have to go.”

“Where are you going?” Geonhak looked like a wounded puppy.

“Sorry, I need to go. Son Dongju has agreed to speak to me, I need to interview him before he changes his mind.”

“Stay and finish your breakfast at least?” Geonhak pleaded.

“Hwanwoong’s waiting downstairs,” he said before he could stop himself. 

The look on Geonhak’s face said everything, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to explain himself right now.

“I’ll call you when I’m done, I promise,” he said before hurrying off. It made him feel guilty, but right now he had no other choice. No, he had made his choice.

The drive to the hospital was quiet. Seoho could tell Hwanwoong felt awkward, so he didn’t press the younger. That being said, he would have to properly interview him at some point. It wasn’t his intention to make things awkward between them. It was a quirky offhand remark but it seemed to have affected Hwanwoong a lot more than he had imagined.

It reminded him of the time Hwanwoong had confessed to him – he hadn’t known about Geonhak. Seoho had laughed in his face, thinking the younger was joking. He quickly stopped laughing when he realized Hwanwoong hadn’t joined in and looked hurt. Hwanwoong had this expression where he looked both disappointed and devastated and it was really difficult being on the receiving end of that look. It made one feel personally responsible for whatever excruciating pain Hwanwoong was going through. Seoho had not enjoyed breaking it to him that he already had a boyfriend. 

At the hospital, they were once again subjected to the many checks before they could reach Dongju’s room. The police looked grim as usual.  
Dongju, however, looked better. He was sat up on the bed, being helped to food by a young man who resembled him faintly. Seoho guessed that this was his twin brother, obviously not identical. 

Hwanwoong greeted the twins, then introduced Seoho to them. Dongmyeong bowed at him but Dongju just nodded, not quite meeting his eyes.

“Right, if you don’t mind telling me exactly what happened…” Seoho said. “Preferably alone.” He looked at Hwanwoong, who realized it was his cue to leave. 

“Will you be okay by yourself, Dongju-ah?” Dongmyeong asked, looking worried.

Once again, Dongju just nodded. 

“You’ve got the calling bell by your side, if you need anything.” Dongmyeong exited with Hwanwoong, leaving the two of them alone.

Dragging a chair close to the bed, Seoho sat down, fixing his eyes on the young man. The silence was dotted with the faint sounds from Dongju’s monitors. 

After a while, Dongju opened his mouth. “What do you want to know?”

“Start at the beginning. You were supposed to meet Hwanwoong at Planet bar that evening?”

“Yes,” Dongju replied curtly.

“Why did you leave the bar?”

The younger man’s face was hard, like he was trying to put up a wall against Seoho.

“Needed fresh air, the bar was stuffy.” His lips curled in a strange way. Seoho stole a furtive glance at the heart monitor, the heart rate was creeping up. 

“So you chose to go the deserted park, instead of keeping to the street?”

“There’s nowhere to sit on the street,” Dongju replied sharply. 

“And then?”

Dongju shifted slightly in the bed, wincing in pain. His heart sped up a bit more.

“I texted Hwanwoong and told him to meet me there. I was sitting on the bench, waiting for him. Listening to music. And then I got stabbed,” Dongju deadpanned.

“Just like that?”

“Why, what were you expecting? Someone crept up behind me and I screamed? I feared for my life, begged them to leave me alone?” 

The heart monitor was flashing red. 

“I’m sorry, you must have been through a lot.” Seoho leaned forward in his chair. “I’ll leave if you want me to.”

The blonde man looked away but didn’t ask him to leave. Taking encouragement from it, Seoho asked, “Can you tell me anything about the culprit?”

“He was quick and silent. Mind you, I was listening to music. And…a smell…very familiar smell…no, that must have been my perfume. Anyway, in short, I don’t think I can help you.”

“Even a smell could help.”

“Forget it,” Dongju said, running his hand through his hair. “It’s nothing. My mistake.”

“I know it’s hard for you but if you could just describe the exact moment of…you know when you felt the knife and anything you remember after…”

Dongju’s eyes were steely. “Like I said I was listening to music so I didn’t hear anything. I felt…something sharp, in my back, and I felt blood in my mouth. I don’t think I even screamed. And…I saw darkness and then I think I heard Hwanwoong’s voice calling my name but…I don’t know.”

“How interesting,” Seoho muttered, leaning back in his chair. His eyes were fixed on Dongju’s, who did a small double-take realizing the intensity with which Seoho was staring at him. He suddenly covered his eyes with his hands.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Of course,” Seoho nodded empathically. He made a mental note of what he had just observed. “Let’s talk about your enemies. Can you think of anyone who’d want to kill you?”

“Of course not!”

“Not even your brother?”

Dongju’s face was impassive. “What do you mean?”

“I heard from Hwanwoong that he was disowned by your father? Money can be a powerful motive.”

“I trust Dongmyeong implicitly.” As he said it, he looked away.

“And Hwanwoong?” 

Dongju glared. “He’s been my best friend since I was 2 years old. Don’t bring him into it.” The heart monitor started beeping loudly, enough to alarm the people outside. A nurse poked her head through the door.

“Are you okay? You’re not supposed to be stressing yourself,” she said, concerned.

“I’m fine.” Dongju dismissed her.

“Did you father really disown Dongmyeong because of his band?”

“Dad always had issues with him,” he grimaced. “When we were ten, we took a stupid psychology test where…anyway, it doesn’t matter.”

It seemed like he was intentionally keeping some things to himself but there would be no point pressing.

“One last thing,” Seoho took three pictures out of his pocket, those of the victims that he had ‘borrowed’ from Keonhee. “Do you know any of them?”

He pointed to one of the pictures. “I think I’ve seen him in a bar I frequent, Grey. Dongmyeong introduced him to me once, he’s an artist or something.”

“Thank you, I’ll let you rest now.”

“Do you love him?” 

Seoho was halfway out of his chair but paused at the sudden question. “Whom?”

“Geonhak hyung?”

He tried to give the younger an empathetic smile. “Look, I totally understand the way he broke things off with you wasn’t-”

“He said he loves me.” Dongju’s eyes were glistening. “He said he’d love me till death do us part.”

It took him a moment to reply. “Sure.”

“I’m not dead yet.”

“No,” Seoho smiled at him. “And we’re all glad.” 

He tried not to show that what the younger had said had bothered him. Had Geonhak actually made those promises? His boyfriend had actually never told him that he loved him or that he was in love with him. Seoho had never needed it, until now…It also became clearer that the reason Dongju was so against him was because of his relationship with Geonhak.

Shaking off these thoughts, Seoho next decided to speak to Dongmyeong. They sat down in the hospital café. Dongmyeong was in a band, called MAS. He had always been in the band but when he decided to pursue it as a career, his father had disowned him. However, he and Dongju were still brothers and they hung out together, helped each other.

“And what were you doing last night?”

Dongmyeong looked visibly uncomfortable.

“Umm, band practice, and then uh – we went for a drink.”

“Where?”

Dongmyeong looked confused.

“Where did you go for a drink?”

“Oh, um- Planet bar. And then, I left. I went home.”

Seoho cocked his head to one side. Surely, the fact that he was at the same bar as his brother on the night of his attempted murder would be something that he would have brought up on his own. Unless there was something he had to hide. “You didn’t run into Dongju?”

Dongmyeong licked his lips nervously. “No, er-we were there before, before Dongju arrived I think and we were in one of the VIP rooms so we didn’t…we didn’t run into him.”

“When did you leave?”

“Around 9.00.”

“So about twenty minutes before Dongju was stabbed?”

Dongmyeong shuddered but didn’t reply. He was looking down at his lap, twiddling with his thumb. 

“If you don’t mind, can I have look at your phone?”

“P-phone?”

“Your cellphone,” Seoho nodded towards the iphone X sitting on the table between them.

Before the man could protest, Seoho grabbed the phone and quickly looked through the messages and the call history – no messages or calls to Dongju yesterday or the day before. Not that he had expected any. He must have deleted any correspondence. 

“Thanks for your co-operation,” Seoho smiled at the nervous young man. “Your brother mentioned a psychology test you took as kids, what’s that about?”

Dongmyeong’s eyes bulged as he paled. “T-test? I-I don’t remember. I should go and check on Dongju.” He positively fled the scene, leaving Seoho alone with his thoughts.

He then interviewed Hwanwoong, who confirmed Dongju’s story. He had no idea Dongmyeong was at Planet bar, as he never made it to the bar. He received Dongju’s text, went to the park, tried calling him but he wouldn’t pick up. Then he found him keeled over on a bench, bleeding profusely. He didn’t see anyone around or any murder weapon. He called the ambulance and put pressure on the wound until they arrived.

“Dongju had ear phones in?”

“Yes, he did. I guess he was listening to music.”

“How did you find him in the dark?”

Hwanwoong shook his head. “I honestly…I don’t know, I was walking around and I guess when I got closer I could smell him…”

“Smell him?” Seoho raised an eyebrow.

“His perfume, it’s the same one he always uses, he wears it strong.”

That’s peculiar, Seoho thought. This was the second time smell was mentioned. And more importantly, the strongest smell Seoho had picked up today happened to be…Dongmyeong’s perfume. 

“If it isn’t Lee Seoho?” a loud booming voice interrupted their conversation. It was Kim Youngjo, the police detective, smiling at them. “And our cute saviour, Yeo Hwanwoong?” He shot his signature wink at Hwanwoong, causing him to make a face.

“Right, Hwanwoong, could you wait here for a minute, I need to speak to Detective Kim.”

Hwanwoong nodded and Seoho followed Youngjo to a deserted corridor. 

“Do you still suspect Hwanwoong?”

“Of course, I do,” Youngjo winked.

“Ok, first, if you can’t control your winking, you should go to your doctor because you may have magnesium deficiency. Second, you wink at suspects too?”  
Youngjo laughed, throwing his head back. He looked effortlessly handsome and that kind of annoyed Seoho. 

“Well, I’ll try to curb my winking. Also I'm not in the habit of letting my suspects know that I'm suspecting them; it makes them put their guard up. Have you done any detecting yet?”

“Yes, maybe, but I need some things,” Seoho frowned. He had collected a lot of information today but they were all incomplete. In order to put the pieces together, he needed proper data. “Dongju and Dongmyeong took a psychology test when they were 10, find out everything you can about it.”

Youngjo looked flabbergasted. “What on earth does a psychology test that they took when they were 10 have anything to do with-”

“I didn’t finish,” Seoho cut him off. “Dongmyeong was also at the Planet bar last night. Get a statement from his bandmates, see if his alibi checks out.”

The police detective gave him a dubious look. “You really don’t think his twin brother-”

“I don’t think anything at the moment. I am collecting information.” Seoho tapped the wall beside him thoughtfully, scratching the plaster a bit with his fingernails. “I need you to confiscate Dongmyeong’s phone and look through any texts or calls to Dongju he might have deleted.”

“Now come on, they’re family-”

“Kim Youngjo,” Seoho pointed a finger at the middle of Youngjo’s chest, “the first rule is, you trust no one. I also need you to give me the tracking data from Hwanwoong’s phone, I need to know exactly when he arrived at the park. Obviously, I’d need any CCTV or dashcam footage to see if there were any suspicious people outside the park. Finally, I need to see the things found at the crime scene and Son Dongju’s phone.” 

“You make a lot of demands,” Youngjo observed. “You do realise I don’t work for you.”

“I promise progress in return.”

He sighed. “Follow me, all the things found at the crime scene are still here, in a locker.”

They went up to the second floor where a room had been cleared out for investigation. There was a locker in the corner and Youngjo opened it, bringing out 3 clear plastic bags. The first contained Dongju’s wallet and a pair of black leather gloves. The initials SD were embroidered on them. 

“What was the temperature last night?” Seoho mused.

“Uhh eighteen degrees, why?” Youngjo asked. Seoho shrugged in reply.

He then looked through Dongju’s wallet, nothing interesting. Finally, he went through his phone. He saw the texts to and from Hwanwoong and missed calls from him. Interestingly, there were texts to Dongmyeong in the last 24 hours, but Dongmyeong’s responses had been deleted. 

‘where do you want to meet’

Deleted

‘I’m at the Planet Bar’

Deleted

‘I’m going out for some air’

Deleted

“So Son Dongmyeong was lying. He knew Dongju would be at Planet Bar, he knew he went out for fresh air. The plot thickens,” Seoho mused while Youngjo raised his eyebrows in shock.

There was also a pair of bloody ear phone and a blood-soaked handkerchief among the artefacts found at the crime scene. 

“Dongju knows one of the stabber’s victims,” Seoho remarked casually. 

Youngjo looked perplexed. “Really?”

“If you dig deep enough, he may have connections with the others as well. Look into it, won’t you? And see if they have any connection to Dongmyeong too.”  
He put everything back in the plastic bags, sighing deeply. A faint smell wafted towards him, one that he had smelled before. 

Strange, he thought. Smell… Once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys. Please pop a comment down below and let me know what you like and what you hate :)


	5. Five

A day had passed since the attempted murder of Son Dongju and Seoho was not happy. He could see a lot of threads in front of him, waving, dancing, but he wasn’t sure which one to pursue. A lot of the things about this case didn’t add up; Seoho was normally good at math, so this was frustrating. 

What bothered him the most was the motive.

In every case, he found the motive to be the most important factor. And motives originated in relationships. Right now, he was caught in a web of relationships – Dongju and Dongmyeong, Dongju and Hwanwoong, Dongju, Dongmyeong, and Hwanwoong…On the surface, the three were best friends, but he needed to extricate the deeper story. Three friends growing up together, one of them gets disowned but apparently no love is lost. Hwanwoong and Dongmyeong were close, maybe they were romantically involved – did Dongju know that? 

Kim Youngjo had texted him early morning to let him know that the blood on Hwanwoong’s handkerchief matched Dongju’s. No surprise there as he had admitted to using it to stem the flow of blood. It did seem incredibly lucky that he found Dongju on time in the park but…

“Do you want coffee?” 

He had almost forgotten that Geonhak was home. The younger was fully dressed for going out and holding a cup of coffee, leaning on the door to their bedroom. Seoho was still in bed, hands behind his head, brooding. 

“That’ll be great, thanks,” Seoho smiled at him, pushing himself up on the bed to lean on the headboard. “Where are you off to?”

Geonhak frowned.

“Work?”

“Of course.” 

Geonhak didn’t have the luxury of being self-employed. Instead, he was out there, saving lives. As a doctor, he worked incredibly hard, above and beyond what he was paid for. He probably had never said it before to him, but he was proud of his boyfriend. 

That reminded him of what Dongju had said yesterday – Geonhak had loved him. Did he love Seoho? Was he ready to find out? It seemed that he made Geonhak mad more often than happy. Would he really love someone like that?

The doorbell rang, causing Geonhak’s frown to deepen. 

“It’s not Hwanwoong, is it?”

Seoho shrugged; he actually didn’t know who it could be. It was early in the morning and he had not made any arrangements for Hwanwoong to pick him up. He also felt bad for Hwanwoong; one of these days, Geonhak might punch him. 

Geonhak went to check who was at the door and returned looking angrier than before. It couldn’t be good news.

“Detective Kim Youngjo is here – do you have to bring all of them home?” he growled.

They had not arranged to meet today so if Youngjo had turned up at his door, he must have found an important clue. Jumping out of the bed, he tried to flatten his hair down as he made his way to the living room.

“Do you want to change into trousers first?” 

“What’s wrong with my shorts?” he asked, genuinely confused.

His boyfriend glared and he was not in the mood to argue. Quickly changing into his jeans, he gladly accepted the cup Geonhak offered and skipped into the living room. 

Kim Youngjo was wearing a grey leather jacket and black jeans, looking like a model. Why someone looked so well groomed so early in the morning, he had no idea.

“I hope you don’t mind me barging in like this?” he smiled, not looking apologetic about it at all. “Didn’t catch the name of this fine young man here.” He nodded towards Geonhak and to Seoho’s annoyance, winked at him. 

Seoho turned to look at Geonhak’s expression and to his utter delight, the younger looked disgusted at Youngjo’s flirting attempts. 

“No? Okay. Is he your brother?” Youngjo asked, making himself comfortable on a sofa.

“Does he look like my brother?” Seoho joined him on the couch opposite. Taking a sip of his coffee, he asked, “What have you found?”

“I’m going now, or else I’ll be late,” Geonhak announced and for some reason, planted a full kiss on Seoho’s lips deliberately before leaving - not something he would usually do, especially not in presence of company. It was probably the brother comment that had rubbed him wrong.

“Aha, your boy toy,” Youngjo commented after the door slammed shut.

“My boyfriend, but can we please get back to the case.”

“Here,” the detective handed him a file. It was the transcript of a text message conversation between Dongju and Dongmyeong from the evening of the day the former had been attacked, no doubt recovered from Dongmyeong’s phone.

Dongmyeong 7.58: I need to meet you, it’s urgent, can’t wait till weekend.

Dongju 7.59: where do you want to meet

Dongmyeong 7.59: where are you now?

Dongju 8.06: I’m at the Planet Bar

Dongmyeong 8.06: I’ll be there

Dongmyeong 8.39: I’m here with the hyungs in the vip room

Dongmyeong 8.40: can’t talk to you in front of them

Dongmyeong 9.00: Can’t we talk somewhere else? The bar’s crowded

Dongju 9.01: I’m going out for some air

Dongmeyong 9.17: meet me in the park opposite?

Dongmyeong 9.19: where are you?

Dongmyeong 9.20: Dongju? Are you having a laugh? I really need to talk to you!

“What do you think then?”

“No love lost,” Seoho muttered thoughtfully.

“What?”

“So Dongju was planning to meet two people, not just Hwanwoong. And it seems like Dongmyeong asked to meet somewhere else other than the bar.” Seoho gulped down his coffee, it was only lukewarm now. “But Dongju said nothing about this and neither did Dongmyeong – I guess they realized it would make Dongmyeong look guilty.”

“You mean he isn’t guilty?” Youngjo frowned, taking back the file from Seoho. “CCTV cameras show he left the bar around 9.15 and made his way towards the park. He was alone.”

“He was probably going to ask for money.”

“How do you know?”

Seoho raised an eyebrow. “Son cut off from the wealth of the father, needs to urgently speak to his rich brother? I looked up MAS, Dongmyeong’s band, they’re not doing very well. They don’t have the money to sustain their career. They may even be in debt.”

“Well,” Youngjo cocked his head to one side, “why don’t we ask the man and find out.”

They went over to the shared flat MAS stayed at and used one of the rooms to interrogate Dongmyeong. At first the younger kept his mouth firmly shut but Youngjo’s interrogation technique was something else and he broke the young man in a matter of minutes. Seoho noticed that Dongmyeong didn’t stand a chance against authority – certainly not the type to be a serial killer.

“Yes, I need money, I wanted to ask Dongju for some but-but I’d never fight my brother for money. He has loads of it and he’s given me money in the past as well, it’s not like that. I just needed it urgently because I need to pay off a debt. If we don’t settle this debt, MAS won’t be able to come out with another album!” Dongmyeong rambled on, visibly shaking. “Dongju told me-we decided to lie about it because I know it looks bad.” He covered his face in his hands, his body trembling.  
If he was acting, he had a career in it.

“Why did you ask him to leave the bar?” Youngjo asked commandingly. The playful look in his eyes, the winks had all disappeared, replaced by an intense gaze.

“I didn’t want to talk to Dongju when he was drunk, he doesn’t concentrate well when it’s loud…” Dongmyeong mumbled through his hands.

Seoho and Youngjo exchanged a look – they were done here. 

“I promise it wasn’t me, I would never!” Dongmyeong pleaded with tears in his eyes.

They left Dongmyeong devastated. In the car, Youngjo looked at him with a victorious gleam in his eyes.

“It’s Dongmyeong, he’s our killer,” he said confidently.

“What makes you so sure?”

“He pretty much confessed.” Youngjo shrugged. “He needed money – so we have motive. He took Dongju out of the bar and into the deserted park. Then he attacked him and ran away.”

“I suppose that’s plausible.”

“And the icing on the cake,” Youngjo took an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket, “is this.”

Seoho opened the envelope and found a psychological analysis report of Son Dongmyeong at the age of 10. So this was the test they were talking about. He flitted through the report to the conclusion which stated that his answers were 79.7% similar to that of an evolving psychopath. If he had 79.7% psychopathic tendencies at 10 years old…there was no saying how much he had evolved since.

The private investigator let out a deep sigh. Some of the strings he had been trying to get a hold of earlier were becoming clearer.

“Well, all of this is circumstantial evidence though, you don’t have anything solid.”

“Not yet,” Youngjo nodded. “But we will get some soon.”

“Do you think he’s the Myeongdong Stabber too?”

“It makes sense, he’s a psychopath after all.”

It would make sense for him to cover it up as a serial killing to hide the fact that Dongju was the main target. As someone with psychopathic tendencies, he would probably not have shied away from killing innocent people. Besides, Dongju mentioned a smell before he was stabbed – if it was that strong and that memorable, it made sense it belonged to someone he knew well, namely Dongmyeong.

“We’re looking through all the nearby CCTV and dashcam footages, I’m sure we’ll be able to place him at the park at the time when the crime took place,” Youngjo said. “He might think he’s clever, but I’ll get him. Looks like you actually don’t need to help,” he smiled smugly at Seoho, who shrugged nonchalantly.

“It doesn’t matter to me as long as someone solves the case, I suppose.”

Youngjo dropped him back at his flat after they had lunch together. They talked about psychopaths and serial killers during lunch and their favourite crime films. When he wasn’t being cringeworthy, Youngjong was a decent man to hang out with.

By the time Seoho reached home, the sun had started to set. Youngjo had emailed him the copies of the psychology test from both Dongju and Dongmyeong to him as well as the CCTV footages from the bar. He spent some time looking through them all. It still bothered him that the assailant had failed to kill Dongju – not because he wanted Dongju dead obviously, but because it was the linchpin of the case. If it was indeed Dongmyeong – had he actually hesitated?

He read the doctor’s report on Dongju’s wound – knife entered from the back, between the 4th and 5th ribs, horizontally, to a depth of 15cm, exactly the same as the serial stabbing cases.

“Why is Dongju alive?” Seoho mused out loud, clutching at his hair.

“Please don’t say that out aloud, you sound like you want him dead,” Geonhak said. He hadn’t noticed that the younger was back. In fact, Geonhak had already   
showered and changed. How had he done all of that so silently, was he a cat?

“When did you come back?”

“Ouch, I know you’re working but at least pretend like I exist.”

Licking his chapped lips, Seoho whistled through his teeth. 

“I went to see Dongju today,” Geonhak remarked casually, pulling his laptop closer to him.

Seoho was going to ask what was for dinner but he stopped and looked at his boyfriend. His voice was way too casual and intentionally light.

“And?”

“Just letting you know, I hope it doesn’t interfere with your case or something.” 

“Well that depends, what did you tell him?”

Geonhak squirmed a little.

“Nothing, just asked how he was. And I told him you’ll find the person who did this to him.”

Seoho was not a jealous person but jealous exes made him nervous. 

“You know Dongju told me that you apparently love him.” Intentionally, he had changed the statement to present tense to see his boyfriend’s reaction.

“You mean I loved him, I don’t anymore.”

“So you did love him?” Seoho sat up straighter and leaned forward eagerly.

“Honestly, why are you interrogating me all of a sudden?” Geonhak looked annoyed. “I thought we were talking about why Dongju is alive!”

Normally, he wouldn’t have just let this go but at the moment, the questions regarding the case were doing his head in more than anything else.

He leaned back again, relaxing.

“You’re a doctor, you tell me how does someone survive a knife to their heart and ten minutes of bleeding.”

Geonhak blinked, confused.

“But you said Dongju was stabbed on the left side of his chest?”

“Yes, doctor, where the heart is.”

“Normally, yes,” Geonhak replied. “But Dongju has dextrocardia.”

“What?” Seoho almost fell from the chair.

“It’s a genetic condition, it means his heart is on the right side.”

“I know what it means but why didn’t you tell me before?” 

From the very beginning, he had been asking this question – how had Dongju survived? But no one had bothered to fill him in on this important detail! Even his boyfriend had known. He tried to breathe the frustration out.

“Oh-I– honestly, I didn’t even think that it was something worth mentioning. I mean, not many people know about this. Dongju only told me when we were dating.”

“Who else knows?” he asked impatiently. He would had been well on his way to solving this if he had known this from the beginning. One of the most important pieces of the puzzle had just been dropped into his lap.

“I don’t know, his family surely, his doctor will know, maybe close friends.”

So now he knew the murderer did not make a mistake – they had stabbed his heart, except in this case, his heart was not in the right place. There was no sloppiness, no hesitation. Come to think of it, the doctor’s report actually did not say that the knife had gone through his heart. That would explain why he had not bled enough and why he was still alive. 

‘But surely, Dongmyeong knows about this,’ he thought. There was no way his twin didn’t know. Chances were, that Hwanwoong was the one who didn’t know.

The murderer obviously did not know. That ruled Dongmyeong out as the suspect. Or did it?

If Dongmyeong was indeed the murderer and if he had stabbed Dongju on the right side, the list of suspects would be much smaller, limited to people who knew about his dextrocardia. That wouldn’t have been a favourable situation for him at all. However, stabbing him on the left and leaving him to bleed for a good amount of time would still lead to his death but widen the pool of suspects. What he hadn’t worked into the equation was that Dongju had made plans to meet Hwanwoong that evening too.

Or…did the murderer stab Dongju in the hopes that he wouldn’t die? What if, they had something else to gain from this?

That was definitely possible. The murderer had a grudge enough to attack him but cared about him enough to not kill him? If that was the case though, he didn’t know why did he have to hide it as a series of murders. There was still something here that he was not grasping completely – he imagined the key to that would be to know Dongju better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always comments are loved and appreciated!


	6. Six

“Tell me everything you know about Dongju and for God’s sake, do not hide anything.” 

Seoho was mad at Geonhak for not telling him about his dextrocardia earlier. However, it had also made him realise that he had a reliable source of information about Dongju’s past – his boyfriend. The key to this case was finding out who Dongju was and who would have the grudge to try and kill him. 

“I didn’t hide anything,” Geonhak said, making a face. “You never asked which side his heart was on.”

“Right,” Seoho sighed. “I forgot I live with ordinary people.” 

Geonhak frowned deeply. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you calling me thick?”

“Let’s talk about your ex.”

Seoho sat up on the bed, facing his boyfriend, rapt with attention.

“You’ve never paid me this much attention before. You’re just using me,” Geonhak whined.

For a man built like a Hulk and a voice to match, he spent a lot of his time whining. On other days Seoho would have possibly found it adorable but right now, his wheels were turning and he didn’t have time to deal with this.

“Look, if I solve this case quickly…I will have more time for you.”

Thankfully, Geonhak seemed satisfied by the explanation. 

“Well, I don’t know what to say. Dongju was a junior at school. He was a smart kid but very whimsical. He would skip a lot of classes, spend a lot of time by himself. Then we started dating and I liked him, I really did. He was quite…” he scratched his head as if looking for the right word, “he liked getting his way. And he did too. I knew his father was a government official and I knew he wasn’t very affectionate with his parents. He didn’t really have any close friends at school. He never really mentioned Hwanwoong to me but he did talk about a close family friend. I don’t know what else I can say.” He finished with a noncommittal shrug.

“And what about his brother?” Seoho questioned.

“Dongmyeong? He’s really sweet. He adored his brother a lot. He was also into music, so he spent a lot of time with instruments and so on.”

“Did he- did he seem strange to you? Unstable? Or cold?”

Geonhak shook his head vehemently. “Not at all, quite the opposite. Dongju was a bit of an ice prince but to be fair, the whole school worshipped Dongju so I think it got to his head a bit.”

Seoho smiled. “And you fell for the ice prince?”

The younger man blushed and mumbled, “He asked me out first.”

It was probably true. Geonhak was too shy to ask anyone out; even if he did like Dongju, he wouldn’t have made the first move.

“Tell me,” Seoho said curiously, “how did you find out about his dextrocardia?”

“Well, I was already interested in medicine so I would sometimes tutor him for biology. And then one day it just naturally came up. I-well I think I kind of inspired him to go to medical school.”

He found that hard to believe. “You mean he just wanted to follow you to medical school?”

Geonhak bit his lip, visibly uncomfortable. “It was after we broke up…he thought if he went to medical school we could pick up from where we left of.”

Folding his arms across his chest, Seoho leaned back, trying to put the pieces together. 

“And why did you break up with him?”

Perhaps this was the part that he really didn’t need to know for the case. It was more his personal curiosity than anything else.

Rubbing his temple, Geonhak replied, “I really wished you wouldn’t ask me that.” He let out a deep sigh. “I loved him, really, but he just…he was very obsessive. He was skipping school more than he was actually at school and he would want to spend every second with me. I didn’t think it was good for him. It just made me uncomfortable that he was throwing away everything for me.”

Seoho hummed thoughtfully. He was trying to put the story together but there were some parts that really didn’t fit in. It didn’t make sense. There was a string somewhere that he had gotten the wrong end of. 

“Do you need a ride tomorrow?” Geonhak snuggled up next to him, putting a blanket over their legs.

“I’ve asked Hwanwoong to pick me up.”

His boyfriend looked like he was trying very hard to control his expression.

“It’s because I need to speak to him about the dextrocardia.”

The tension eased around his forehead. “Really?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“To protect my feelings?”

“When have I ever done that?”

Taking his hand in his, he said seriously, “I don’t know why I put up with you. But I want to put up with you forever.”

They have had a good two years as a couple and yes, moving in together was a big step but they had never really discussed their future. They hadn’t even professed their love for each other. Perhaps because he was older now, Geonhak was a lot more guarded about professing undying love towards someone, especially someone he spent a lot of time being mad at. So the word forever coming from his mouth was kind of a big deal. But he didn’t want to ruin the moment by quizzing Geonhak about his feelings so he gave him a peck on the lips and put his arm around him. It was something he would rarely do but Geonhak rested his head on his shoulder naturally, squeezing his hand. It was at that point Seoho realized that they were having a moment.

The next morning, while Hwanwoong was giving him a ride to the Forensic Institute, he asked the younger if he had known about Dongju’s dextrocardia.

“What’s dextrocardia?” Hwanwoong blinked. It was genuine.

“Did you know his heart is on the right side?”

Hwanwoong laughed but when Seoho didn’t join in, he stopped. “Wait, there is such a thing?”

Shaking his head, Seoho changed the question. “Who would know something like that?”

“I feel like I should have known. But it’s not a disease or something, right? Dongmyeong would know, his parents, and the doctors, I guess. Dongju doesn’t open up to people easily so I’d be really surprised if someone else knew.”

“Geonhak knew.”

Hwanwoong stole a quick look at him.

“That’s…unexpected.”

He drove in silence for a while before asking, “So are you close to catching the culprit?”

“Close yes, just not there yet.”

If Hwanwoong had not known about the dextrocardia and wanted to genuinely murder Dongju, he would have stabbed him on the right side. Unfortunately for him, this made Hwanwoong a stronger suspect.

At the Forensic Institute, Keonhee greeted him with a wide smile before pulling him into another autopsy room. This was a bit bigger than last time but there was an actual body on the table, thankfully covered. 

“You have no idea what I found!” the medical examiner asked with glee in his eyes.

“The practice bodies?” 

Keonhee’s face fell like someone let the air out of a balloon.

“Are you psychic?”

Throwing his head back, Seoho smirked. “No, I’m a detective. We talked about the Myeongdong Stabber last time and how he might have had practice on his technique. And today you look absolutely excited so it must mean you have discovered something all by yourself that’s supposed to impress me. You brought me to an autopsy room that is occupied by a body. If you add everything up, the options are limited, to be fair.”

Pouting disappointingly, Keonhee crossed him arms on his chest.

“Well thanks for making quick work of my disappointment.”

“I’m still impressed, Keonhee,” he reassured the taller man.

“Yeah well,” he turned to look at the body, “I found them, it was bloody difficult because these seemingly random killings happened in different places all over soul, nowhere close to Myeongdong. Plus, the victims were all homeless people so-”

“No one linked them,” Seoho finished the sentence. “That’s amazing! Similar wounds?”

Keonhee nodded. “Yep, trying to penetrate the heart from the back. Technique gets better chronologically, but the stabber is smart so he does this.” He moved the cover off the body and pointed at the wound on the front of the chest. “Post-mortem wound to the front of the chest, to throw off anyone investigating so that the murders don’t get linked.”

Patting him on the back, Seoho said, “You’re a genius!”

Keonhee looked satisfied. “It was a lot of hard work and I had to get a lot of people to co-operate but I got there in the end.”

“Did you tell Detective Kim about this?”

The medical examiner stiffened. “I haven’t really seen him around…”

“Not even in personal capacity?” Seoho winked.

Keonhee groaned, throwing his arms up in a fit. “Can you stop figuring out useless things?”

“It’s not completely useless if I can use it against you.” He did enjoy teasing Keonhee about his relationship with the police detective. 

“I don’t know why we’re friends,” he complained. 

“Because we’re both too clever for everyone else.” He knew a bit of flattery would help to placate his tall friend. “By the way, you know the potential 4th victim?”

“Oh yeah, Youngjo told me about him. He’s doing well, isn’t he?”

“Yes, are you surprised he’s alive?”

“I was surprised but I’ve spoken to the doctor looking after him. Dextrocardia – that was really lucky.”

“Right?” Seoho clapped. “That’s what I keep thinking. How lucky.”

“Youngjo said he thinks it’s the twin. Do you think the same?” Keonhee asked.

“I am not as certain as your boyfriend, that’s for sure. Especially since we don’t have any proof. I just need to clear out a few more things before I can make my mind up.” 

He sat down on a spare chair and crossed his legs. Dongmyeong was quickly becoming the prime suspect of the case. A man with psychopathic tendencies in need of money, shunned by his family, he’d admit he made a good criminal. But in person, nothing about him screamed a cold-blooded murderer. He seemed to care for his brother and his band. Besides, why would he want to kill his brother? So that his father accepts him back into the family? 

“Are you going to stay here for long?” Keonhee asked, pocketing his cellphone. “I just got a text from Youngjo, he’s coming over to see me.”

“The good detective still owes me some evidence, I might as well just wait so that I can harass him about it.” Seoho looked at his friend inquisitively. “What do you like about him anyway?”

Before Keonhee could finish listing off all the reasons, all of which sounded very similar to ‘he’s handsome’, the man in question arrived.

“Lee Seoho, you’re making me jealous you know,” Youngjo said, thankfully without winking.

“Do you have anything for me?”

He put up a finger. “I do in fact. Your tip about the victims of the Myeongdong Stabber and Son Dongju paid off.” He took out a diary from his pocket and consulted it. “The first victim, Cho Sunghoon, is the owner of Grey.”

“Grey,” Seoho mused, “the bar Son Dongju frequents.”

“Exactly! The second victim, he’s a patron of the same bar. And the third victim, he – get this – owns a chain of high-end clothe stores that Son Dongju frequents.”  
“Someone was targeting him from the beginning,” Seoho reckoned. It was clear now that the Myeongdong Stabber and Dongju’s assailant were one and the same. It was all about Dongju. “Why are you smiling like that?”

The detective wore a smug cat-like smile. He was probably not done yet. “Guess who all three were friends with?”

There could be only one reason why the detective looked victorious. Sighing, Seoho said, “Son Dongmyeong?”

“My hunch was right!” Youngjo exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. “Do you want to come with me to speak to some of the Grey bar patrons? We need to see if Dongmyeong had any grudge against them.”

“No, you go.” He turned to Keonhee. “Can you come with me? I want you to take a look at something.”

He looked surprised but he agreed.

“No flirting with Lee Seoho,” Youngjo reminded his boyfriend.

“Not everyone is like you, Kim Youngjo,” Keonhee said heavily. “Flirting with anyone and everyone.”

“Aww, is my boyfriend sulking?” Youngjo put an arm around Keonhee, rubbing his cheek against his. It was the first time Seoho saw genuine flirtation from Youngjo.   
However, this was not the time for the couple to get lovey-dovey, there was work to be done. 

“Guys, can you do this later? We need to go now,” Seoho said, ushering Keonhee out of the door.

“See you later, miss me!” Youngjo shouted, causing Keonhee to blush and Seoho to shake his head.


	7. Chapter 7

Keonhee drove them to Seoul General Hospital, at Seoho’s request. He suddenly had an idea – even though Dongju was alive, he was still a victim of the Myeongdong Stabber. But because he was alive, he hadn’t been examined by a medical examiner. Following a surgery and healing of skin, there might not be much that could be gleaned from his wound anymore but he wanted to leave no routes unexplored. 

They had to go through police checks as usual before they were allowed into Dongju’s room. Keonhee showing his Forensic badge did help to speed things a bit. Dongju was sat in his room in his bed, wearing his hospital gown. Dongmyeong was there as well, tending to his brother. 

“What do you want now?” Dongju asked curtly when he saw Seoho enter. 

Instead of beating around the bush, he decided to cut to the chase. “My friend here is a doctor, I just wanted him to take a look at your wound.”

Dongju frowned. “I have been seen by a doctor, I get seen by a doctor every day. This is a hospital.”

He knew it wouldn’t be easy to convince the younger to agree to be examined. He had every right to refuse too. But this was important. Leaning close to Dongju, he glanced at Dongmyeong, who looked terrified. 

“This is very important, for the sake of your brother,” he whispered urgently. When Dongju didn’t look convinced, he added, “I shouldn’t be telling you this but the police are looking into your brother…and Hwanwoong.”

Something changed in Dongju’s eyes. Clenching his teeth, he nodded while his twin looked close to tears. 

“Sorry, but if you could give us some privacy…” 

Dongmyeong left the room, clutching at his heart. Keonhee walked closer to the bed.

“I’m sorry I just need to have a look at-”

With contempt, Dongju pushed the top of his hospital gown out of the way. There was a large square plaster over his left shoulder, with some dried blood soaked through. Keonhee apologized as he carefully removed the bandage, exposing the now sutured wound. 

He analysed the wound for a while with a frown on his face. Finally, he thanked Dongju and put the bandage back. 

“That could do with changing, actually,” he suggested.

“If you’re done, just leave,” Dongju said, not looking at them.

“So, thoughts?” Seoho asked once they were outside the hospital building. 

Keonhee looked conflicted. “It’s hard with wounds that have been tampered with and in this case obviously he’s had surgery.” He took a deep breath. “But I’m almost 80% sure that this one was made by a left-handed person.”

Seoho bent down to do his shoelace. “But the others were right-handed?”

The medical examiner nodded thoughtfully. 

“Yes. Although the weapon seems to be the same. Like I said, it’s hard because I can’t see the raw wound. And in someone who’s alive the skin heals of course. Apart from the fact that it was a left-handed person, from the angle of the wound, I cannot tell you much. The wound is in about the right area but it’s hard to tell if it’s an exact match. I’m sorry if this made things more confusing.”

“What if it was the same right-handed person who stabbed with their left-hand?”

“Don’t think so. In order to push the knife in as deep as they have, you need to have enough strength in your hand. And the precision here…you can’t just use your non-dominant hand and get away with it.”

Seoho frowned. “Do you mean it may not have been the Myeongdong Stabber who stabbed Dongju?”

Keonhee bit his lips. “Very, very likely. I’m sorry. It’s a copycat, a good one, probably.”

For the first time, it didn’t make sense but also made some sense at the same time. 

The attempted murder of Son Dongju and the Myeongdong stabbings were destined to be linked – but that was likely the problem. The reason he couldn’t solve this problem was because he just assumed there was only one killer. That may not necessarily be the case. 

With a smile, he replied, “On the contrary, it may be the break I was looking for.”

Things were taking an interest turn. If only a forensic examiner had examined Dongju right after he was injured, they might have been able to tell him more about the perpetrator. That ship had sailed.

They sat at a café near the hospital, talking about the Stabber’s victims over coffee. He asked Keonhee to go over the victims one again, as he tried to arrange the story in his head. As he was getting his head around it all, he got a call from Youngjo, who asked him if he wanted to interview one of Dongmyeong’s school friends. That would be interesting insight, he thought. He agreed readily. 

“I’ll text you the address.”

“Text Keonhee the address, he’s going to drop me off.”

“I am?” It was news to Keonhee for some reason; he knew Seoho didn’t drive.

They met in front of the school friend’s workplace. He was called Jang Sewoon. He had heard about what had happened from the police and had agreed to speak to them if that would help in anyway.

“I’ve heard about you, there are some online sites discussing what a genius you are! I love detective stories,” Sewoon said, smiling widely, obviously pleased to meet him. “Can I have a picture together?”

Seoho shrugged and let Sewoon take the picture. Once he was finished gushing over how brilliant Seoho was, he asked him, “You were Dongmyeong’s friend, correct?”  
“Yes, mainly. I knew Dongju too but he didn’t really have a lot of close friends. He was a bit of…an ice prince.” He laughed. “I’m sure he thought he was better than us, but then, I guess he was. He was super popular.”

“And Dongmyeong?”

He shook his head. 

“He was the complete opposite. He was so down-to-earth and so kind. He loved music, was obsessed with it. He was popular too, but in a different way. People were just loyal to him you know, he was a good friend to everyone.”

“Interesting,” Seoho smiled. He was starting to see the big picture and he felt enthralled. However, in the pit of his stomach, he felt a sense of foreboding. If this was how it was going to go…“Did you know Dongju dated a senior in school?”

“Oh yes, we all did. He was obsessed with…what was the name-Kim Geonhak? He was a senior who was good at studying so whenever he would refuse to hang out with him in order to study, Dongju would throw a fit. He hated not being the centre of someone’s attention, he hated sharing.”

Seoho hummed thoughtfully. “And they broke up?”

Jang Sewoon rubbed his temple. 

“It was so much drama! They fought badly. Dongju pretty much went insane. That’s when he started hanging out with Dongmyeong, which wasn’t ideal because Dongmyeong was studying for medical school exams. But Dongju just followed him around. I guess it didn’t matter in the end as Dongmyeong didn’t end up going to medical school.”

“Dongmyeong was studying for medical school entrance exams?” Seoho inquired.

Sewoon nodded. 

“He would have gotten in too, if not for the distraction Dongju caused, I think. But they were super close, really close.”

They spoke for a bit longer before it was time for Sewoon to go back to work. Thanking him, Seoho hailed a taxi to take him back to his flat. He felt a bit more at ease since the beginning of the case. Until now, he had felt like he was in the dark, and random lights were turning on and off, teasing him. But now, he could see steady light at the end of the tunnel. 

While the air whipped through his hair, he thought about the psychology test the twins had taken as kids – surprisingly, none of his acquaintances had noticed any of Dongmyeong’s psychopathic traits. He was definitely good at hiding things – was the innocent fearfulness all an act? Was Youngjo actually on the right path? But someone as clever as the Myeongdong Stabber wouldn’t leave a trace. Dongmyeong must have known that he would be suspected. Was he hoping that the persona of the Myeongdong Stabber would save him?

His thoughts were interrupted by another call from Youngjo, who sounded excited.

“We have arrested Son Dongmyeong.”

“You have what?” Seoho couldn’t hold back the scream. He had expected better from the police detective. Surely, he didn’t have any evidence. And if Dongmyeong was really a psycho killer, he would hardly confess to his crimes. The arrest seemed very premature and not a smart move. 

“I interviewed some of the bar patrons and they have attested that Dongmyeong knew the victims. He had borrowed some money from them as well. We have more than enough circumstantial evidence for a warrant.”

Seoho rubbed his eyes. He wanted to shout at Kim Youngjo but he controlled himself. “Are you going to make the arrest public?”

“Not yet, we need to get his confession.”

“Right, and what makes you think-you know what, just do what you’re doing. I need to my thing.” He hung up, feeling annoyed. He had trusted Youngjo to have better judgement but the police detective was ahead of himself. Disappointing, as always. This was why Seoho liked to take his time with things.

The next second, Hwanwoong was ringing him.

“They’ve arrested Dongmyeong! It’s not him, tell them it’s not him. It can’t be him.”

He tried to calm the younger down but he was inconsolable. They obviously had a special relationship, even if they didn’t admit it. He felt bad to hear the devastation in Hwanwoong’s voice, especially since he was pretty sure that Dongmyeong had been wrongfully arrested. 

“Look, I’m going to try and help him, Hwanwoong.”

“It’s not him,” Hwanwoong insisted. 

“Leave it with me, don’t do anything stupid, just sit tight.”

“I used to like you,” the younger suddenly confessed, his voice shaking, “I used to like you so much and when I realized you didn’t like me back, I felt like I was in hell. I suffered so much and Dongmyeong helped me to get over the wreck I was when you rejected me. He- he’s the most kind-hearted person I know.”

There was a pause during which he thought about how Dongmyeong had been a source of support for Hwanwoong in his time of need, how much he cared for him. He wouldn’t want to destroy any of that. And yet, he had a decision to make.

It was strange to hear him confess that. To be honest, Seoho hadn't lost a wink of sleep over rejecting Hwanwoong. He had gotten along the next day, all fine. However, it didn't have the same effect on the younger it seemed. 

“I understand, Hwanwoong. I will help you.”


	8. Chapter 8

When he arrived at the flat, the sight that met his eyes was not one he would have believed had he not actually witnessed it. Even then, for a second, he thought he was dreaming.

Geonhak was sitting on the couch in the living room, which was obviously normal. But there was someone else with him, straddling him and kissing him, and even though his back was to Seoho, he would recognize the figure anywhere – Son Dongju.

It took him a moment to digest the scene – he was repulsed, but his analytical mind took over quickly. On a closer look, Geonhak was actively trying to push Dongju away, but he couldn’t have been trying very hard since Son Dongju was probably one third of his weight. He probably didn’t want to hurt the younger in the process, knowing how he was injured and all but still…to just let Dongju sit there and eat his face…

Son Dongju was dressed in casual clothes, not the hospital pajamas and gown he had seen him in. it didn’t make sense for the hospital to release him this soon, which probably meant that he had snuck out somehow. The fact that he was here with Geonhak after leaving the prison meant that the news of Dongmyeong’s arrest hadn’t reached him yet. He would like to keep it that way for now, anyway.

They had obviously heard him come in but Dongju did not show any signs of giving up. Geonhak’s eyes grew wide as he saw his boyfriend and he started throwing his arms wildly, as if asking Seoho for help. Purposefully, he remained still, his arms crossed, until Dongju finally turned around to look at him before throwing his keys, the only thing he was carrying at the moment, at him. It wasn’t like he actually wanted to hurt the younger, he was just annoyed by him. Dongju caught the keys with his hand easily and laughed.

“Is this the best the young private investigator can do?”

“Would like to explain to me why you’re assaulting my boyfriend?”

With a smirk, Dongju said, “If Geonhak wanted to stop me, he could have, you know that.”

“No! Of course, I tried to stop you! I just didn’t want to hurt you…”

“Because you love me.”

“Okay, Dongju you need to stop. That ship sailed years ago and I-”

Losing his interest, Seoho headed towards the bedroom, leaving the two to squabble. He had already seen what he needed to see. Of course he was annoyed that his boyfriend was snogging his ex but he also knew Geonhak had not been a willing participant in that interaction and he had the maturity to accept that. That, however, wouldn’t stop him from holding it over his head for a couple of weeks, maybe even months to get his way. 

He went into his study and opened up his laptop. The CCTV and dashcam footages that Youngjo had sent over were sitting in his email. He wanted to look through them all and establish a timeline. There was also an important email he needed to send. 

After about 15 minutes, Geonhak walked into the room, looking livid. He normally didn’t let Geonhak into his study when he was working but he was too distracted to throw him out today. 

“Seriously, I can’t believe this guy!”

“How did he get out of the hospital?” Seoho asked, typing furiously.

Geonhak shrugged. “It’s Dongju, he does what he pleases. But seriously, I can’t believe Hwanwoong gave him our address-”

“Now, now, don’t blame Hwanwoong. If you’re trying to make me jealous…” His eyes were fixed on his laptop screen and he was only paying half of his attention to the conversation as he was having a much more interesting conversation with someone via email.

“I’m not! It’s Dongju, he’s always been so jealous, always having to have his own way.” Geonhak shouted in frustration, ruffling his hair angrily. It was evident that he felt guilty and angry about what had happened. 

“Do you know what’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?” he asked calmly.

Geonhak scowled. “Really, that’s what you want to talk about right now?”

“Go on, humour me.”

Sighing, he said, “Well, I suppose the main difference is psychopaths can pretend to be someone else. They are high-functioning, they can lead very normal lives. It usually comes as a shock to the people around psychopaths because they are good at blending in. Whereas sociopaths are more likely to go off the rail and behave in impulsive ways.”

“Blending in, you say? For example, they would be regarded as a stable person, kind even?”

Shrugging, he replied, “Possibly. They could sometimes pretend to be extra kind and caring, to make up for the fact that they don’t care. They are not necessarily always violent but something can trigger them. Don’t believe everything you see on TV.”

“I wasn’t planning to.” Seoho stretched his arms behind his head. “Our minds are such an interesting place. I would love to live with a psychopath.”

There was a moment of silence. If it was any other day, this would signal the start of a Geonhak tantrum, but today, the younger tried hard to swallow his words.

“Did you get somewhere with the case?” His voice sounded strangled, as if he was forcing himself to say the words.

“If I end the case, you won’t get to see Dongju again. Wouldn’t that be bad?” The sarcasm in Seoho’s voice was probably a bit too steep; Geonhak’s eyes looked glossy.

“Look, I’m sorry but it wasn’t my fault-”

“No, snogging your ex just happens from time to time.”

“Right, so you can spend all the time you want with Hwanwoong and-”

Something snapped within him. He had tried to tell himself that it didn’t bother him, none of it – the resurgence of Geonhak’s ex who apparently was still in love with him, the fact Geonhak had actually told Dongju he loved him but he was yet to say something like that to Seoho, the sight of Dongju and Geonhak kissing – but it made him mad. He was an intelligent man and he understood the rationale behind each of these things but right now, there was something about the way his boyfriend was playing the victim that made him furious.

Pushing his laptop aside, he got to his feet. With a fierce look in his eyes, he backed his boyfriend against the wall, Geonhak looking surprised and confused. 

“Hwanwoong is not my ex. I’ve told you countless times, I don’t have an ex or any interest in anyone apart from you. But you, why did you have to rub Dongju in my face? You could have stopped Dongju from kissing you, but you didn’t. Yes, you’re annoyed by your crazy ex but how can you not see what it does to me?”

Geonhak gulped. “You…you’re jealous.”

Seoho could feel the heat in his face, his accelerated breathing, and the slight tremor in his hands. “Well done for figuring that one out, genius.”

“You’re jealous?” Geonhak had the audacity to crack a smile. “You, of all people? You’re so jealous that you could kill!”

All of a sudden, the haze of jealousy disappeared. Seoho’s brain started ticking. It was like a curtain was lifted. “What did you say?”

“I was joking. But you are jealous and-”

“No, say it again, the last thing you said.” He was peering into his boyfriend’s face eagerly, jealousy replaced by epiphany. 

“I-I said you’re so jealous that you could kill.” Geonhak was frowning, no doubt shocked by the sudden change in his boyfriend’s demeanor. “I didn’t mean it, obviously.”

Seoho cracked a smile. “Jealous enough to kill, eh? Why didn’t I think of that?”

“What’s going on?” the younger man asked slowly.

There was a gleam in Seoho’s eyes. 

“Jealousy, it all comes back to that, does it?”

Geonhak looked perturbed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Exactly!” Seoho turned away from his boyfriend, feeling excited. “Can we find the murder weapon? Probably not, it’s probably in the lake.” He was talking more to himself really since Geonhak had no idea what he was talking about. “Yes, of course, which is why it had to be close to the lake!”

Running back to his laptop, he checked the latest email from Dr Yoon Sangmin. He was the psychologist Seoho had asked to analyse the tests the twins had taken when they were kids. He was of the impression that the test results were accurate but he had pointed out something else of interest. When asked if there was anything else he could say about the test-takers from the tests, Dr Yoon had suggested that Dongmyeong had written the test with his left hand.

“Is Dongmyeong left-handed?” he asked Geonhak.

“No, they’re both right-handed. What is going on, will you tell me please?”

Seoho shushed him. “Now is not the time for questions, it’s time for answers.”

“I would like some, please.” 

Seoho clicked his finger, pleased with himself. They could try keeping secrets from Lee Seoho, but they would always fail.

“What about Yeo Hwanwoong?”

“What about him?”

“Is he left-handed?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Geonhak’s frown was getting deeper and deeper.

“He’s not,” Seoho confirmed, grinning widely.

“Wy are you asking me questions you know the answer to already?”

“But we don’t have any proof, so we need him to confess.”

His boyfriend looked at him as if he was going insane. 

“You’re making no sense.”

“On the contrary, I was able to make sense of this situation. What I need is,” he placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully, “a trap.”

Geonhak gave him a helpless look, like he desperately needed to know what was going on. He sighed. Sometimes, it was boring to not have an equal in mind around.

“Are you up for an experiment?” he asked instead.

“You mean you want me to drive you somewhere.” After almost two years together now, his boyfriend was perceptive.

“You have an important role,” he took Geonhak’s hand, leading him towards the door, “a very important role.”

They drove down to the crime scene. Seoho was quiet, gathering his thoughts in his head. The real problem would be finding proof. Chances were that if the murderer didn’t confess himself, he would walk away. Or worse, someone else would be convicted in his place, just as he had planned.

They walked to the other side of the park, near the lake, Seoho leading. The bench where the crime had taken place was empty although the warning signs and ‘do not cross’ tapes had all been taken down. There was no proof that a heinous crime had taken place here. Instead, it looked peaceful. There was a nice summer breeze, creating ripples on the surface of the lake, the glare of the sun suppressed by the trees clumped around the bench.

“This is actually very nice,” Geonhak commented, watching the ducks glide across the water.

“How about at night?”

After thinking about it for a bit, he said, “Yeah, not so nice then. I’d actually be scared to sit here by myself at night.”

“The most secluded spot in the park,” Seoho drummed his finger on the surface of the bench thoughtfully, “yet, it has to be this place.”

“Why?” Geonhak wondered.

“Because, it’s close to water. Close to the ideal hiding spot. If I was a murderer, this is exactly where I would want my victim to be. Here,” he picked up a stray rock, “I’ll show you.” He threw the rock towards the water. With a plop, it sunk into the lake, not leaving any trace. “Your turn.” He extended his hand towards his boyfriend.

“Why do you have a knife?” Geonhak exclaimed. He had pocketed one of their dinner set knives on the way out for the experiment. 

“We’re going to do an experiment, remember?” He got up from the bench and came to stand by Geonhak, urging his boyfriend to take his place on the bench instead.   
“Right, now, put your headphones in, listen to some music.” He waited until his boyfriend complied. “Now I’m going to try and sneak up on you.”

Seoho walked behind the bench, as carefully as he could, leaving no footprints on the grass. When he was inches away from the bench, he pretended to stab Geonhak in the back and then threw the knife towards the lake. As expected, the knife sank into the water. It all took under a minute.

“Did you hear me at all?”

“No,” Geonhak took the headphones out. “But I felt it, someone behind me. And I could smell you. That’s a strong perfume you’re wearing today.”

Pleased that his experiment was successful, he said, “It’s a strange thing, smell. A smell could give you a personality.”

“And you’ve lost me.”

“Yes indeed,” Seoho replied, his smile widening. “So you’ve just been stabbed, but the wound is not fatal enough. What would you do?”

Geonhak frowned. “Well I guess I would try to put pressure on the wound and-”

“No, think like a person who’s just been stabbed, not a doctor.”

“I would…call for help. I have my cellphone, I’ll call 119.”

“But you know someone’s on the way to see you. You want him to be the one to find you.”

Geonhak looked troubled. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll turn the flashlight on so that they can follow the light…but I don’t see why does it have to be him who finds me.”  
Seoho patted him on the back encouragingly. “Because,” he whispered, his voice wrought with excitement, “you have to give them an alibi.”

Sighing, his boyfriend stood up from the bench, pushing his hand inside his jeans pockets. “I hope this makes more sense in your head.”

“It’s crystal clear, don’t you see?” he cried with frustration. His boyfriend was not helping to celebrate his achievement. “Let’s go down to the precinct, I need to see Kim Youngjo.”

“Is that the obnoxious police detective who came to our place?”

Seoho nodded. “That’s him, but don’t be flattered that he flirted with you, he does that with everyone.”

“Honestly Seoho, you know that’s seriously one of my turn-offs.”

On the way, Seoho told Geohak that Dongmyeong had been arrested for the attempted murder of Son Dongju. His boyfriend looked shocked, adamant that they had made a mistake. When Seoho agreed with him, Geonhak calmed down a bit.

“Is it still attempted murder if Dongmyeong knows Dongju’s heart is on the right and intentionally stabbed him on the left?” Geonhak mused.

“That,” Seoho smiled, amused that his boyfriend was finally following his thinking patterns, “is the right question to ask.”

“I wonder how Dongju will take it. He is very close to Dongmyeong, very close. Probably the only person he ever listens to.”

Seoho hummed. That was something he wanted to see too.

At the police precinct, Dongmyeong’s interrogation was at full swing but apparently the suspect was refuting the charges. Kim Youngjo had spent hours trying to persuade him, coax him, and then threaten him – nothing had worked. 

“Will you talk to him?” The usual playful look was gone from the detective’s face. He didn’t even greet Geonhak. He looked harrowed and his eyes darted anxiously. They had only 48 hours to make Dongmyeong confess to his crimes – otherwise, he walked free since they didn’t have any solid evidence linking him to the murder. The police detective was probably feeling the pressure. He obviously had expected Dongmyeong to crumble under his interrogation but that hadn’t happened so far. “We’re looking into his alibi for the rest of Myeongdong murders but…”

Seoho agreed to have a quick chat. He was shown to the interrogation room. It was pretty barren, except for a table and two chairs, one of which was currently occupied by Dongmyeong. The young man had his head down on the desk.

“Dongmyeong?”

The younger raised his head. His eyes were red and puffy, his lips dry. 

“Please help me,” he said in a thin voice, “I-it’s not me, I swear.”

“You know things are looking bad for you. You don’t have an alibi for the time of crime, we can place you quite close to the crime scene at the time, we have a motive for you. And we have this test results from when you were 10-year-old claiming you are a psychopath.”

He screwed his eyes shut, and two glistening tears squeezed through his long eyelashes. He placed his trembling hands together in front of him, like he was praying.  
“I’m not a psychopath, I swear. Ask anyone! I’ve never even hurt a fly. And I wouldn’t even dream of hurting my brother-ever.” 

He looked at Seoho despairingly. There was truth in his eyes, Seoho could sense it. And yet, he sensed something else there. Almost like…it was hard to tell… Every time he had met Dongmyeong, he had felt a sense of unease, for no particular reason. 

Right now, he saw a man who was speaking the truth in front of me. However, the only way he could explain it was as if he was speaking the truth from a far away place, like through a screen. 

“And Hwanwoong?”

“Hwanwoong?” he blinked, confused. 

“Do you trust Hwanwoong?”

“Of course I do!” Dongmyeong cried. “What’s he got to do with anything?”

Their eyes met. “Are you sure?”

“Yes! I would trust him with my whole life.”

Seoho smiled. “In that case, I have a plan.”


	9. Nine

Seoho woke up in high spirits. It was a sunny day with a sweet breeze. The curtains in his bedroom were swinging gently. 

“Geonhak, do you have to go to work today?” Seoho whispered in his boyfriend’s ear. 

Geonhak was sprawled across his side of the bed, his mouth half open. He didn’t like wearing anything to sleep so he was naked save his boxer under the blanket. Caressing his toned abdominal muscles, he repeated the question again, louder this time.

“No, no, I’m off today,” Geonhak croaked sleepily, putting his arm around Seoho. 

“Wonderful! I need you!”

Without warning, Geonhak started kissing his neck – he had obviously gotten the wrong idea about why he wanted him home.

“No, stop,” Seoho was trying to push his boyfriend away but it was a difficult feat. “Seriously.” He pushed a little harder while pinching his bicep, causing Geonhak to open his eyes wide. “We need to go, now! The wheels are in motion.”

He showered and got dressed in record speed. This was what he enjoyed the most about being a detective – setting up a trap for the criminal and watching them helplessly entangle themselves in it. It’s a treat to watch and also he felt like he could finally give himself a pat in the back.

This trap had to be planned with Kim Youngjo – the police’s help was absolutely necessary for what he was about to do. There was of course a slight chance that it wouldn’t work and his prey was stronger that he had thought; but in this case, he was sure he had all the right buttons, ready to be pressed. 

“Will you hurry up?” he nagged his boyfriend impatiently.

“Do I have to dress nice?”

“Do I have to dress nice?” he mimicked him. “No one’s going to be looking at you!”

It was because Geonhak did not know what was going to happen, there was no spring in his step, no excitement, no hurry. It was both disappointing and frustrating. However, it was probably his fault – the fact that he had actually not disclosed any of ideas to him yet.

“Right.”

The drive to the hospital was not as quiet as he would have liked it to be – Geonhak kept asking what they were doing and who the murderer was and what proof he had. His boyfriend didn’t understand that this was a battle – a psychological battle of wits and these were always hard. It all came down to who would give in first – the suspect or Seoho. While Seoho was very mentally stable, it was always a difficult fight, especially when the prey understood what he was trying to do and would fight their best to escape the trap.

In this case however, he had a suspicion that the prey was not aware how far ahead Seoho was in regards to untangling this mystery.

He had managed to have a long conversation with the police detective. According to Youngjo, Dongju was still admitted in the hospital and had been informed yesterday about Dongmyeong’s arrest, after he had left their place. However, Seoho needed Dongmyeong here today, at the scene, in order for the play to be complete. So at his request, Youngjo had brought him over today.

Dongju’s room was empty, save himself, when they reached. He looked surprised as they entered – he had not been expecting them.

“What are you doing here?” he asked coldly.

“I thought you’d be happy to see Geonhak,” Seoho said, feeling Geonhak’s elbow poke his side painfully. “I just wanted to assure you that you’re safe now, the culprit has been apprehended.”

Dongju’s face grew dark. “You think I’ll be reassured by the fact that my own twin tried to kill me?”

At this moment, Youngjo entered the room, followed by Dongmyeong and Keonhee, who was trying to be inconspicuous. The medical examiner had begged to be there when Seoho finally revealed the killer. Given that his role was very important in solving this case, he had allowed him to be here. 

Dongmyeong was wearing the same clothes he had been arrested in, looking haggard. Seoho watched Dongju’s expression carefully. His face hardened as he set his eyes on his twin.

“Why have you brought him here?” he asked emotionlessly.

“Dongmyeong wanted to tell you something.” Youngjo ushered Dongmyeong forward, closer to Dongju’s bed. Dongju recoiled, afraid.

“Dongju-ah, please tell them it wasn’t me. You know it wasn’t me – I would never,” he pleaded with tears in his eyes.

Seoho glanced at Dongju’s heart monitor. 

“I don’t want to see you ever again.” Son Dongju turned his head away in disgust.

Son Dongmyeong sank to the ground on his knees, tears forming in his eyes.

“It wasn’t me!”

Satisfied with how things were progressing so far, the detective checked his watch. It was time for Act 2.

The door suddenly burst open and Hwanwoong entered, looking disheveled.

“It wasn’t him, it was me!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. He hurried towards Dongmyeong and pulled him onto his feet, wiping his tears away. “I confess, ok, I did it.”

Everyone was looking at the drama unfold in front of them but Seoho’s eyes were glued to Dongju. The expression on his face turned quickly from disbelief, to shock, to absolute horror. The heart monitor behind him started beeping more urgently – 98, 100, 105, 111 – his heart was picking up.

“Yeo Hwanwoong, are you confessing to the attempted murder of Son Dongju?” Youngjo asked grimly, prying him away from Dongmyeong and fixing him with an intense look.

“Yes, I did it, let Dongmyeong go, please.” 

Alarmed, Youngjo met Seoho’s eyes briefly, but he just nodded. 

“Mr Hwanwoong, if you confess here, it will be legally binding. We will charge you for the attempted murder of Son Dongju, and the Myeongdong murders,” Youngjo explained gravely.

“I don’t care!” Hwanwoong cried. “If you let Dongmyeong go, I’ll plead guilty to everything.”

“No,” Dongmyeong finally spoke up. “That’s not true, it can’t be true. Hwanwoong – no – he wouldn’t!” He was having difficulty finding the words.

Taking a pair of handcuffs from his pocket, Youngjo said, “Yeo Hwanwoong, I’m placing you under arrest for the attempted murder of Son Dongju. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used-”

“Stop!” Dongju’s shrill scream interrupted Youngjo. He was shaking uncontrollably. Swinging his legs out of the bed, he sat on the edge, looking at the scene in front of him. “Don’t lie Hwanwoong, you’re lying to protect Dongmyeong.”

Hwanwoong was looking down at the floor. “I have nothing to say, I’m sorry Dongju.”

“It wasn’t you!” Dongju’s heart monitor was beeping loudly and Seoho gesticulated at Geonhak urgently to turn the alarm off. He did not want any distractions or interruption. They were reaching the climax. “I know it wasn’t you, it was Dongmyeong. Stop pretending it was you, stop trying to save Dongmyeong, just stop! I’ve had enough with you two!”

His words were followed by deadly silence. Youngjo looked at Seoho again, confusion apparent in his eyes.

Finally, it was his time to enter the stage.

“Why do you say that, Dongju? How are you sure it wasn’t Hwanwoong?” he asked coolly.

“Because it wasn’t!”

“Do you have proof?”

“You have my testimony! I told you I smelled a strong perfume – it was my brother’s perfume. He knew I was going to be at the park. You said you found a pair of gloves at the crime scene with the initials SD – that’s my brother’s initial! He-he’s a bloody psychopath!” Dongju’s eyes were red; he wore the expression of an angry predator. 

Folding his arms against his belly, Seoho took a few steps across the room, as if buried in thought.

“That’s all true,” he agreed, “but do you really believe your brother is a murdering psychopath? You, of all people, the closest person? Do you think he has what it takes to commit crime in cold blood? To push cold steel through skin, into the heart and watch someone bleed to death? Do you think he takes pleasure from it?”  
Dongju turned his head very slowly, as if in slow-motion, to face him. He looked ashen but his cheeks were starting to show a bit of colour. His body was stiff, the tremors from earlier gone. 

“What do you mean?” he asked in a steely voice.

“Detective Kim,” Seoho suddenly addressed the police detective, pretending to take his attention off Dongju. “Do you know how soon kids start to show psychopathic tendencies? As young as 8, apparently. I had a very interesting conversation with Dr Yoon – he’s an expert in these sorts of things.” He paced around the room with his hands behind his back, knowing every eye in the room was following him eagerly. “Psychopaths are different from sociopaths, because they can pretend, they can mask their…tendencies. They can start doing that early in childhood.” He paused for effect. “So when Dr Yoon said that Dongmyeong’s test had been filled in by a left-handed person, I was surprised. Because Dongmyeong isn’t left-handed. In fact, no one in this room is.”

He paused to watch the utter confusion in everyone’s face. No one had any idea what he was talking about and yet, even as he thought about it now, tingles of excitement jolted through his spine. This was a hard one, a difficult nut to crack. But he was so close, so very close. 

“But, that’s not to say someone can use their left hand just as much as their right – in other words, Dongmyeong can be ambidextrous, thereby fooling us all.”  
Geonhak silently mouthed the word ‘what’, while Hwanwoong and Dongmyeong exchanged meaningful glances. “Sorry to burst your bubble though, I’ve watched Dongmyeong try to write with his left hand after his arrest, and he couldn’t. So who is this left-handed person who had filled in Dongmyeong’s test when they were 10-years old? I was thinking about it, when I had the opportunity to do a simple test. Geonhak, do you remember when Dongju came over to our place, uninvited, might I add?”

His boyfriend looked uncomfortable as all attention suddenly fell on him. “Y-yes,” he mumbled.

“I found Dongju and my boyfriend in a-er-shall we say a compromising position.” Geonhak glared at him while Youngjo let out a soft gasp. “Obviously irritated, I threw my keys at Dongju. His right hand was otherwise occupied but he very easily caught the key with his left. The thing about reflexes is, they are innate and you can’t hide them. This told me that Son Dongju could use his left hand as well as his right.”

While Dongju’s eyes started to show a quiescent hatred, everyone else looked thoroughly uncomfortable. They were confused, obviously, about where Seoho was going with this and what the implication meant.

“Hopefully, you can see where I’m going with this – twins take a psychology test, one has started to show psychopathic tendencies while the other is clueless. The psychopathic twin knows he will be found out through the test, but he finds a simple solution. He swaps their tests when the other twin isn’t looking, and submits it. Easy. And Dongmyeong gets branded as the psychopath.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dongju said quietly. He was sitting very still but his hands were curled into fists on either side.

“Humour me,” Seoho said, laughing slightly. He could see that he had shaken his opponent, but it was far from being over. “As he grows up, Dongju channels his tendencies in different ways. He does what he pleases, he doesn’t have close friends but he has friends. He hates sharing and he is obsessive. And then, he finds a boyfriend.” Seoho waved his hand towards Geonhak, causing Youngjo to mutter something inaudible. “But Geonhak ends it, the relationship. Now Dongju has not had anything taken away from him. And he was obsessed with his boyfriend, so it shakes him up. He becomes more withdrawn, he spends more time with Dongmyeong, who’s studying for medical school. And this is when, I believe, his interest in human anatomy starts to develop.”

“So what?”

“He gets over the first break-up eventually but the second one hits him harder.”

“But he’s not been in a relationship since,” Dongmyeong interjected. It was sweet that he was still trying to protect his brother. Or was it?

For now, Seoho shook off the other thoughts and concentrated on the matter at hand. 

“Not that anyone knew, but in Dongju’s mind, Hwanwoong is one of his possessions. They’ve been friends forever and even though there was nothing romantic between them, he possessed him. He was his. It was fine, until Hwanwoong and Dongmyeong became closer than he had anticipated. He had sensed the romantic relationship between them, the impending break-up, in the sense that he would not be Hwanwoong’s first priority anymore. This time however, he wasn’t ready to let Hwanwoong go. So in order to do that, he needed to make Dongmyeong disappear.”

He cleared his throat and took a sip of water from his bottle. His every action was being closely monitored by Dongju, like a prey looking for a chance to escape.   
“It would be too easy to kill Dongmyeong and there was a chance Hwanwoong would be heartbroken over it. Remember, Dongju didn’t want Hwanwoong romantically, he wanted him emotionally. No, to really win over Hwanwoong, he needed him to hate Dongmyeong. And thus, he designed a plan. He practiced on homeless people all over Seoul to get his technique right. Then he birthed the Myeongdong Stabber. He targeted people close to Dongmyeong but not close enough for him to be caught too soon. He needed him to be outside prison until the last nail on the coffin – his attempted murder. It had to be personal, for Hwanwoong to really hate him.”  
There was a minute of silence as he watched everyone’s brains turn as they digested the information.

“So-so you’re saying Dongju is the Myeongdong Stabber?” Youngjo asked, stupefied.

“In the flesh.”

“Then… who stabbed Dongju?”

Seoho raised an eyebrow at Dongju, who looked like a porcelain doll, perched at the edge of the bed. He didn’t even blink. No doubt, in his mind, he was doing rapid calculations on how to react.

“Do you want to tell them, or shall I?”

When the younger didn’t say anything, Seoho said, “Keonhee had a look at Dongju’s wound but it was difficult to because it had already been operated on. But he was certain that the wound had been established by a left-handed person.” He looked at Keonhee, who confirmed it with a nod. “Now we know Dongmyeong isn’t the killer, because there’s no reason for him to kill his brother. Hwanwoong was still on his way when this happened. The only left-handed person close enough to stab Dongju was…Dongju.”

There was a collective gasp around the room. Dongmyeong put his hands over his mouth, his eyes wide.

“You can’t stab yourself in the back!” Youngjo protested.

“Not if you’re right-handed. But if you have the same strength in your left hand, you can very easily stab yourself.”

Geonhak mimicked the action of stabbing himself in the back with his left hand and looked shocked when he was able to do it easily. 

“He did a great job trying to frame Dongmyeong – the gloves with the initials SD, dropping hints about the psychology test and the smell, the text messages on his phone and he would have gotten away with it too, unless his plan was ruined by Hwanwoong confessing.”

He turned back to look at Dongju’s face, which was like a blank sheet of paper. Seoho, who was good at reading faces and emotions, had absolutely no clue what the younger was thinking. Nothing in his face or body language said that he had heard a single word that Seoho had said. If Dongju had been a poker player, he would have been invincible. But this wasn’t a poker game and Seoho still had a card to hold over his head. 

“This is something Dongju had not anticipated, that Hwanwoong would lie to save Dongmyeong. For someone who has no empathy, it was impossible for him to factor in love in his calculation.”

He drew out Hwanwoong’s name, hoping to get a rise from Dongju. But the younger had turned to a statue. He had to dig a little bit deeper in order to loosen his roots.

“I had started to think that there was something wrong with Son Dongju from the moment I interviewed him. Luckily, this heart monitor had been very useful. His heart didn’t go up when he was talking about the incident at all, he was as calm as a peach. He had gone through such a harrowing experience and yet, he had no problem talking about it, albeit with reluctancy. His heart rate didn’t go up when he was talking about Dongmyeong either, but shot right up when he was talking about Hwanwoong. That and his body language towards Hwanwoong was vastly different compared to that when he interacted with anyone else, including Dongmyeong. It was obvious, you see, Dongju considers Hwanwoong as his. Whether it’s love or lust or – I won’t say I have worked out how his mind completely works but in anyway, he couldn’t bear to lose Hwanwoong. Especially not to his twin. He has spent a good 20 years when Hwanwoong had been completely his – in his mind. But things changed…”

Seoho watched Dongju’s impassive face – there was no sign of remorse or guilt. As expected, he was as cool as cucumber, playing a long game. However, all of this depended on Dongju confessing to the murders since they didn’t have a lot of evidence.

Clearing his throat, he began again. “Did you pick up the cues between Hwanwoong and Dongmyeong? The shifting body language? The close whispers, the wandering hands, the shoulder to cry on…and it was not right.”

Dongju’s heart rate was going up again and for the first time, he bit his lip as his nostrils flared; there was a hint, the slightest hint of nervousness in his eyes.  
“Hwanwoong, your Hwanwoong…chose Dongmyeong over you. You weren’t good enough, no, Dongmyeong is better.”

Seoho had never seen a wounded wild animal in real life but he thought that would look very much like Dongju right now. His hands were curling into fists. The more times he said Hwanwoong’s name, the more the true form Dongju appeared from behind the curtains through his facade. 

“Because who’s the one person who could never ever be the murderer?” He looked around the room expectantly, hoping to witness the ingeniousness of the murderer’s plan sink in. There were mostly confused and disbelieving faces – of course, the murderer was beyond anything anyone has ever encountered. He left the question hanging in the air, waiting for everyone else to figure it out and Dongju to steep in the loss of Hwanwoong. Finally, after what seemed like a good five minutes, Youngjo said in a cracked voice, “The victim.”

Clapping his hands excitedly, Seoho nodded. “Absolutely, detective Kim. The one person you’d never suspect is the victim himself.”

“That can’t be true,” Hwanwoong whispered, his lips trembling and his eyes darting between Seoho and Dongju. “That cannot be true. I know I have said Dongmyeong can’t be a murderer but so can’t Dongju. I know him, I’ve known him all my life…”

“Really?” Finally, Dongju spoke but his voice was ice cold, enough to send shivers down Seoho’s spine. It was the raw voice of a wounded tiger, nothing could be more terrifying. “If you know me, how do you not know that I despised seeing you and my brother together? How could you be Dongmyeong’s lover, right in front of my eyes? After all these years, after you’ve said you’ll be here for me?”

“I-Dongju-I don’t understand…I mean, who even told you about us?”

Dongmyeong quickly lowered his gaze to the floor but his brother didn’t spare him a look. Dongju’s eyes were fixed on Hwanwoong, burning with the intensity of a thousand suns.

“Dongju, you know I still love you, if it bothered you, you could have talked to me-”

“Yeo Hwanwoong, you’re mine,” Dongju growled. He was making his move, staking his claim. But at the same time, he was wrapping himself up in Seoho’s trap. “And I’d like to see people try and take you away. I have lost something of mine once.” Very slowly, he turned his head to glance at Geonhak once, before turning back to look at Hwanwoong. “But not this time, not you.”

It was working, Seoho thought, slowly but surely. But the problem was, this wasn’t enough. All this evidence was circumstantial – without a full confession from Son Dongju, he would never be indicted. A cold-blooded serial killer would walk free.

Dongju got to his feet, causing Youngjo to start moving towards him but Seoho stopped him in time with a shake of his head. They needed this scene to play out in order for it to work.

Slowly, he approached Hwanwoong, not breaking eye contact all this time.

“Don’t listen to what they’re saying,” he whispered to Hwanwoong, grabbing him by his arms and staring deeply into his eyes. “They’re lying.”

“We are not lying, Dongju,” Seoho intervened.

Dongju finally took his eyes off Hwanwoong and looked at Seoho. His gaze was full of fire, but the corners of his lips lifted up in slow-motion, a cold crooked smile that would make anyone turn the other way and run away from him. He saw him now, in all his emotionless, calculating, cold-blooded glory – out in the open.  
He opened his mouth, baring his incisors.

“Prove it.”


	10. Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end. I spent a lot of time planning and writing this so if you liked it, please let me know in the comments :)

“Prove it,” Dongju said. He didn’t shout, or scream, or show any kind of anger. He almost whispered it, in a relaxed tone. 

Despite everything, Seoho felt like being violently pushed against a corner by his throat. He could imagine Dongju’s long pale fingers choking the life out of him. Truthfully, they had nothing to charge him with. Even if they forced him to take a psychopathy test now, there was no solid evidence to tie him to the murders. He had most definitely gotten rid of the weapon and even if they manage to fish the knife out of the lake, all fingerprints will be gone. It was frustrating, because even though he knew everything, Dongju was the one who had the upper hand. No, the only way to bring him to justice would be to make him confess.

But how?

He needed something to push Dongju, to appeal to his narcissistic side, to rile him up. He briefly met Youngjo’s gaze, who looked defeated. Keonhee had his arms wrapped around him, as if he was afraid he would be physically hurt by the psychopath in the room. Dongmyeong was still staring at his feet, while Geonhak looked like he was propping himself up with his arms behind him, against the wall, his mouth agape. Poor Geonhak, he must be in shock, realizing that he had been dating a psychopath and how easily he could have been Dongju’s first victim.

The beginning - he had to go back to the beginning - the first time Dongju realised he could lose his things too.

Rallying his thoughts, Seoho said, “I don’t have proof. But I can’t think of anyone else who would be so pathetic enough to lose two boyfriends, well, one boyfriend and one…friend, I suppose. You knew you are not wanted, when Geonhak left you.”

He could feel Geonhak's terrified glare on his back, having suddenly been brought to the conversation. He had read up about the psychology of psychopaths and he knew that attacking his ego might bring him a confession. Psychopaths had a tendency to awe people and they didn’t want people to think less of themselves. This could be the perfect opportunity to bring that on.

“Geonhak didn’t want you, because he knew he’d find someone better. And he did, right Geonhak?” Seoho turned sideways to meet Geonhak’s eyes, which looked rattled and petrified, trying to send a message. 

Dongju slowly turned to look at his ex-boyfriend. Finally, Geonhak nodded slowly.

“I just didn’t think you were worth the time,” he mumbled, not quite meeting Dongju’s eyes, but that was enough. 

A small tremor started at Dongju’s feet and worked its way up his body. He could see a vein on the side of his forehead dilate.

“And so did Hwanwoong,” Seoho said loudly, victoriously. “Why would he pick the brother who does nothing but sits on the lap of luxury? He would obviously choose the brother who was making something out of himself, someone who was actually achieving something.”

He stressed on the word achieve and that did the trick. Dongju’s eyes were showing a crazed frenzy, his fingers shaking. As if on cue, Hwanwoong moved away from Dongju, probably unintentionally, towards Dongmyeong.

“You have no idea what I’ve achieved,” Dongju said, the mad grin of a dying prey appearing on his face. “You lot have no idea. Because you’re idiots. Myeongdong Stabber, hah,” he started laughing, the volume growing louder and louder, his mouth opening wider and wider as the sound of the laughter resonated within the walls. His shoulders moved up and down rhythmically. They were all entranced, watching him laugh. It wasn’t the laugh of a human. Hwanwoong had to look away.

“Myeongdong – Dongmyeong – I set it up nicely for you but you fools took so long. After all the clues I laid out for you…the police, honestly. I thought Dongmyeong would be behind the bars by the next day, but you all are so stupid!”

Youngjo was about to say something but Seoho raised a hand to stop him.

“I don’t see how you’re any smarter,” Seoho said, cocking his head to one side. “All I see is a spoiled brat in front of me, who doesn’t know how to do anything by himself.”

“Oh really?” Dongju replied in a mocking voice, “five homeless buggers, all dead. Three rich pretty boys, all dead. I killed them, I killed them with my own bloody hand. And yet, I didn’t even make the suspect list. They never connected the dots. Are you still trying to say the police are better than me?” 

From the corner of his eyes, he could see Youngjo stir but he urgently sent him a sign – not yet. They could get more from him. Dongju had reached the point where he felt the need to list his achievements, to convince them that he was indeed superior. He wanted them to be shocked, to be awed by his audacity.

“Even though I came to the same conclusion myself, I didn’t quite understand how you could have done it. You, being petite, and weak, and lacking conviction…” Seoho baited him, hoping to get a more through confession.

“Do you want me to demonstrate?” Dongju glowered. "Those idiots, they were drunk. And they never saw me coming. They had their backs to me, not knowing they would never see another human face ever again. In fact, they would never see anything ever again. To push cold steel through flesh, to watch warm red blood gush out,” there was a sharp intake of breath, “do you know, what it feels like Seoho?”

It took him all his self-control to steady his voice while maintaining eye contact with Dongju, the crazed gleam in his eyes burning.

“I can’t say I do.”

“No, you wouldn’t. The thrill, the power – it’s not for someone weak, like you. Like any of you.”

“So, I was right, the Myeongdong Stabber was born to take Dongmyeong out?”

Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Hwanwoong again. “You’re a fool, for trusting Dongmyeong. You – are – mine.” As he said each word, he took a step towards Hwanwoong, finally reaching out and grabbing him by the arms again. This time, Hwanwoong flinched, no doubt in pain, as Dongju’s fingers grew white as they squeezed his biceps. 

At Seoho’s nod, Youngjo stepped forward and pried Dongju away from Hwanwoong.

“Son Dongju, I’m placing you under arrest for the Myeongdong murders, perverting the course of justice, and several other murders you have just confessed to. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in the court of justice. You have the right to an attorney.”

“I don’t need an attorney!” Dongju growled. “When people find out what I have done, they will worship me. They will praise me. They will follow me. I am the greatest serial killer South Korea has ever seen. And do you know what?” he smirked, “I will get away with it.”

“I want to see how,” Youngjo muttered, putting the handcuffs on quickly. Dongju did not protest. His eyes were still glowing, as if he had just won something. He was drunk with elation from finally being able to tell everyone about his achievements. He had finally become unhinged, tipped over. The fine balance he was maintaining, hiding, appearing to fit into society had been broken. This was just Dongju, in his natural habitat.

While being escorted out of the room by Youngjo and a few other uniformed policemen, he stopped at the door and said, “Lee Seoho, you probably come the closest my IQ in this room. For that reason, we will meet again.”

Knowing full well that the threat was silly, Seoho couldn't help but feel a moment of apprehension. 

After the door closed, Dongmyeong ran to Hwanwoong and hugged him. They both fell in a heap on the floor, Hwanwoong finally letting out all the tears he was holding in. Seoho was impressed – he could tell that Hwanwoong wanted to cry but he had prevented Dongju from seeing him in tears. Geonhak slowly slid down to the floor against the wall, burying his head in his chest. Keonhee looked like he had the air taken out of him. 

These psychological battles were hard for Seoho himself, so they had taken an extreme toll on the rest. Dongju was one of the most haunting murderers he had ever met. Even now, he felt a shiver in his spine.

“Is it over?” Keonhee whispered to him.

“For now,” Seoho replied. "For now, for Dongju."

“What possessed Hwanwoong to confess?” Geonhak asked. They had just left the hospital after giving their statements to Youngjo. They were walking towards where Geonhak had parked his car.

“A little something called love…and a nudge in the right direction.” Seoho smiled smugly. He was feeling a lot better now, the eeriness of being in the same room as Dongju had dissipated. He was allowed to feel happy for putting a serial killer behind the bars.

“Wait, did you tell Hwanwoong to confess? He knew the plan?”

“Of course not, if he knew the plan, it wouldn’t be real, he wouldn’t have been so convincing, would he? I just told him that the only way to save Dongmyeong would be for someone to confess that it was them instead of him and he did it.”

Geonhak stared at him for a couple of seconds, before saying, slowly, “Wow, that’s really brave. Having been a suspect in a murder case…I know how it feels. To do that for someone you love…I have to say, I misjudged him.”

“Yes, you have been unfair on him,” Seoho agreed.

Geonhak hit him on the arm and scowled, before breaking into a smile. 

“So this means Hwanwoong doesn’t like you?”

“Exactly.”

“So no one likes you?”

“I was rather hoping you like me.”

“I don’t.” He said it with a straight face. 

“You mean to say-”

“You don’t care about me, you’re a workaholic, you don’t have an ounce of romance in you, who knows if you even have feelings – what’s there to like about you?”

Seoho pouted. “Are you saying you're breaking up with me on the day I solved such a difficult case and brought a psychopathic murderer to justice? This is how you congratulate me?”

“I wasn’t planning on congratulating you,” Geonhak said stiffly. “But, I do want to say something.” He stepped closer to Seoho so that the tips of their shoes were touching. Seoho tried to look away, embarrassed all of a sudden but Geonhak put a finger under his chin, forcing him to look into his eyes. “Lee Seoho, you’re an annoying prick and I don’t like you, But... I love you.”

For a second, he thought he heard him wrong. But his keen sense of hearing could not be wrong. Geonhak had said it loud and clear. He had told him that he loved him. And it couldn’t be just the adrenaline from what he had just experienced. No, Geonhak had been thorough enough to list his awful qualities before expressing that despite everything, he loved him. 

“I-I don’t know what to say,” Seoho said, still a bit giddy from what he had just heard.

“You don’t know what to say?” Geonhak rolled his eyes. “Surely, there’s something very obvious to say after I just confessed my undying love for you?”

“Thank you?”

His boyfriend looked like he was ready to hit him. 

He was going to say something to placate him when his eyes settled on two figures at a distance, just in front of the hospital. He watched as Dongmyeong hugged Hwanwoong, whose shoulders were shaking – he was probably crying. It bothered him, to watch Hwanwoong in Dongmyeong’s embrace. The slender shorter man was cupping Dongmyeong’s cheeks eagerly, before pulling him into a kiss.

“What’s wrong?” Geonhak asked. He had probably noticed how Seoho’s eyes had changed and turned around to look at the two figures. “You’re frowning again.”

“If you were to steal candies, who should be punished?”

Rolling his eyes, his boyfriend replied, “Me, of course. Is this another one of your riddles? I thought we are done.”

“And if someone had asked you to steal the candies?”

“Both of us, I suppose, but like – why would I listen to this person?”

Seoho placed a finger on his lips, brooding. “And what if this person didn’t actually tell you to steal the candies but instead manipulated you into stealing them?”  
His eyes were still focused on Hwanwoong, who was now holding hands with Dongmyeong.

“How is that even possible? They didn’t tell me to steal the candies but I stole them anyway? Isn’t that just my fault?”

A thin smile flit across his lips.

“Let’s say this person is close to you, he spoke to you, influenced you, and he made you realise actually how much you like candies. This eventually led you to steal the candies.”

“That doesn’t sound possible.”

“And yet…” He stood rocking on his heels with his hands in the deep pockets of his jeans. There was no way to punish a manipulator. There was no way to prove that someone had been manipulated, unless the manipulator and the manipulated both confess. However, in this case, the one being manipulated probably didn’t even realise that it had happened. And yet, he was uncomfortable, watching the two people across the street. “I think I have to do it, otherwise it doesn’t feel right.”

“Do what?”

He silently nodded towards Hwanwoong and Dongmyeong.

“Seoho, please, I’m tired. Can we just go home?”

“Give me two minutes.”

Hands still in pockets, he walked across the street to where Hwanwoong and Dongmyeong were. They both looked surprised.

“Thank you so much, Seoho,” Hwanwoong said, smiling through his tears. “Dongmyeong was so worried…”

“I don’t think he was.” Seoho fixed his eyes on Dongmyeong, who shrugged confusedly.

“What-what do you mean?”

“I mean…a master manipulator has nothing to worry about, right?” He directed the question at Dongmyeong, who looked from him to Hwanwoong in apparent disbelief.

“Wait, I don’t understand…who are you talking about?”

“Let me guess Mr Son, your father has asked you to come back home? Everything forgotten, forgiven?”

“How did you know?” Hwanwoong asked. “He just called five minutes ago!”

Seoho sighed. His fear was true. 

“I don’t think we will ever know to what extent you manipulated Dongju. But I guess it all started when a broken-hearted Dongju sought your company in school. You were inseparable, your friends said, after Geonhak broke up with him. Dongju is not an affectionate person, he most definitely doesn't care about family. Yet, he had been helping you all this time behind your father’s back. No one tells him what to do and yet everytime you ask to meet him, he complies. Why? Because you have a certain power over him, that even he is not aware of, I think.” 

Seoho was glaring at Dongmyeong, knowing this was all he could do at the moment. For a second, a very brief second, he saw a steely look in Dongmyeong’s eyes – he saw the real Dongmyeong, a cold manipulator. He might not be a psychopath, but in some ways, he was even more dangerous than one. A man who understood feelings and emotions and knew how to play with them. 

“I honestly don’t know what you’re accusing me of,” Dongmyeong said, looking to Hwanwoong for assistance. This helpless puppy act could fool Hwanwoong, but it wouldn’t fool Seoho.

Hwanwoong looked confused - he obviously didn't believe Dongmyeong could be a manipulator and yet, he had too much faith in Seoho to just dismiss what he was saying.

“Hwanwoong is my friend, and if you dare, if you dare hurt him or manipulate him in any way, you’ll have to deal with me.”

With that, he turned his back on them and walked over to his boyfriend. He hoped that it would be enough for Dongmyeong to behave, the fact that someone knew his secret. Besides, it didn’t seem like he had any intention to harm Hwanwoong. Manipulators were cowards, in the end. They didn’t have the guts to act themselves, hence they manipulate others.

“What was that about?” Geonhak asked, searching his face. “You look angry.”

“Let’s go home,” Seoho said, shaking his head. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Argh, you always do this,” Geonhak groaned, taking his keys out of his pocket.

“Oh!” Seoho suddenly stopped in his tracks as if he just remembered something.

“What now?”

“I love you!”

“What?”

“I love you – that’s what you wanted me to say in reply before.” Seoho smiled broadly, looking proud of himself. 

Geonhak couldn’t stop the smile creeping up to his lips but he stopped himself forcefully, scowling. “I’m offended. It took you that long to figure it out?”

“Oh my days, of course I love you, you idiot,” Seoho said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

His boyfriend glared, and then his face fell, as if something had just crossed his mind. “Sometimes, I worry that I’m too stupid for you.”

“Honestly, Geonhak, you have nothing to worry about. Every smart detective needs a stupid assistant.” Seoho laughed at his own joke, feeling content. He was smart, charming, and funny - that was a difficult combination to find. His boyfriend didn't seem to share the same sentiment though.

Getting into the car, he quickly locked all the doors.

“Good luck walking home today.” 

"Oh, come on," Seoho complained loudly, "it was a joke. Let me in." He banged on the window. "Let me in or I'll get Hwanwoong to drop me off."

The doors unlocked with a loud click and Seoho jumped into the passenger seat, gloating. 

"Aww Mr Kim Geonhak, you can't resist me, can you?"

"Keep talking and you'll find yourself walking everywhere from now on. I want to see how often Yeo Hwanwoong will give you a ride."

Seoho laughed, feeling a lot lighter. He would just take a few days off and let Geonhak cool down. Or, once they are home, he had other ways of making Geonhak bow to his will.


End file.
